Silence Of The Heart Dialogues With Robert Adams ( Spirituality General)

OF THE

EART

DIALOGUES
WITH ROBERT ADAMS

<3>ILENCE
OF THE (3%EART

J^ia, toques
with

(^Jiobezt <s^$ams

Edited By

The Infinity Institute
Acropolis Books, Inc.

/ -Level

Acropolis Books, Publisher
Atlanta, Georgia

Silence of the Heart

Dialogues with Robert Adams

First Acropolis Books Edition 1999
© 1997 by Robert Adams

Published by Acropolis Books, Publisher, under its /-Level imprint.
All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written
permission. All rights reserved under the Universal Copyright, Berne Conventions and applicable
national copyright laws and bilateral treaties.

For information contact:

The Infinity Institute

2370 W. Highway 89 A
Box 11-182
Sedona, Arizona 86336

Acropolis Books, Inc.
Northridge Business Park
8601 Dunwoody Place, Suite 303
Atlanta, Georgia 30350

http://www.acropolisbooks.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Adams, Robert, 1928-1997.

Silence of the heart: dialogues with Robert Adams; edited by The Infinity Institute,

Acropolis Books, Inc. - - 1 st Acropolis Books ed.
p. cm.

Originally published: Sedona, AZ.: Infinity Institute, 1997.

ISBN 1-889051- 53-5 (pbk. alk. paper)

1. Spiritual life-Hinduism. I. Title
BL1237.36 A33 1999

294.5'44-dc21 99-056019

CIP

This book is printed on acid free paper that meets the
American National Standards Institute Z 39.48 Standard

o)n Roving ©Memozif

of

Our Beloved Robert

Who Transmitted the Entire Teaching in His Smile.

January 21,1928-March 2,1997

They say that I am dying, but I am not going away.

Where could I go?

I am Here.

Sri Ramana Maharshi

Robert’s Presence on this Earth was the greatest gift of the
Universe. He was silence. He was love. He was being. His
simplicity and sweetness were his teaching. His vast under¬
standing which was all inclusive, gave him wonderful humor,
sincerity, compassion. Robert was everyone’s best friend. In
his presence one became like a child, like the child they could
never be even in childhood. Innocent, openhearted, natural
and simple. Nothing could remain in front of him. There was
no room, no space. The fullness of his presence left no room
for anything else, no mind, no past, no attachment. One was
relieved of all but here and now. This was his grace.

Looking into the endless vastness of his eyes, I said,
“Robert, you don’t mind, do you?” He said, “Just put nickels
in my ears to keep my eyes open.” What an ordinary guy, but
so extraordinary! The delight of his emptiness! Empty of
judgement or opinion, he loved unconditionally. The utter joy
of his unconditional love left one completely open. One could

-v-

(salience oft the (ypteail

see that any thought of feeling was coming only from one’s
own mind, and therefore so easily dropped. We are free. We
only think we’re not. “Robert,” I said, “am I not free just
because I think I’m not?” He replied directly, his face in front
of mine, his eyes looking fully at me. “Because you think.”

There is nothing to hide, nothing to be, nothing to do.

There is a free relationship. There is unconditional love.
There is revelation, there is understanding which goes beyond
understanding. He told the story of our suffering, and he told
the way out. There was nothing he did not understand. If we
remember his words, his life, his manner, his walk, his talk,
his gentle hands, his humor, his vast eyes. If we remember this
in our lives, we are free, and we are with him in freedom.

For that is what he was—freedom. No name, no form, no
limitation. Know your Self, and know Robert for what he was and
remains. Know your Self and be free! Free without separation.

We remember Robert in freedom. The freedom that he was
and always remains. The freedom that we are. The freedom
that I Am. Robert rarely had a preference. He flowed with life.

... Again, he leaves us only with ourselves, looking within.

Ananda Devi

The first thing you should realize is that there will never be a time
when you disappear or die, because there never was a time when you
were born. You have always existed as Consciousness, and you will
always exist as Consciousness.

After you awaken, what happens to you when you die? Where do
you go? When you wake up, you stay where you are. There is nowhere
to go, nowhere to come back to. You just are. You are your Self,
Omnipresence.

Robert Adams

Some people tell me:

Robert , why don’t you just speak
the highest truth all the time?”

And some people ask,

Robert , speak so that I can understand
what you are talking about. ”

So that is the dilemma.

So I do whatever I have to do.

I plan nothing.

Everything is extemporaneous.

I have no rehearsals.

I don’t write anything down.

I just say what comes out of me.

This book is dedicated to the teaching of Robert Adams.
Great effort has been taken to present the words exactly as he
spoke them during Satsang, 1991-1993. The tapes were
transcribed, then organized and categorized under subject
titles.

-VI-

-vu-

Confession ofi the (^}nani

by Robert Adams

“He sees the Infinite Self in all,
and all in the Infinite Self which is his Being. ”

— Robert Adams

For the Jnani who has realized the identity
of his inner being
with the infinite Brahman,
there is no rebirth, no migration and no liberation.

He is beyond all this.

He is firmly established in his own Absolute,
Existence-Knowledge-Bliss true nature.

The further existence of his body and the world
appears to the Jnani as an illusion,
which he cannot remove,
but which no longer deceives him.

After the death of this body, as in life,
he remains where and what he eternally is,
the first principle of all beings and things:
formless, nameless, unsoiled, timeless, dimensionless
and utterly free.

Death cannot touch him, cravings cannot torture him,
sins do not stain him; he is free from all
desire and suffering.

He sees the Infinite Self in all, and all in the Infinite Self,
which is his Being.

The Jnani confesses his experience thus:

I am infinite, imperishable, self-luminous, self-existent.
I am without beginning or end.

I am birthless, deathless, without change or decay.

I permeate and interpenetrate all things.

In the myriad universes of thought and creation,

I ALONE AM.

-ix-

^5,able oContents

In Loving Memory .v

Some People Tell Me . vii

Confession of the Jnani . ix

Finding the Satguru . xvii

Robert Adams . xxi

I Welcome You with All My Heart . 1

Abidance in Truth .3

Satsang

Awakening .7

Spiritual Awakening

Love, Compassion, and Humility

Consciousness . 17

Everything Is Consciousness
Consciousness—the Screen of Reality
Consciousness—the Substratum of All Existence
Why Transcend Duality?

Turn Within—Awaken to the Truth

-xi-

^able (rfj Contents

Who Am I? . 31

T Is God

Am “I”My Possessions?

Where Did the “I” Come From?

Silence Is Understanding There Is No Mind to Quiet

“I" Has Nothing to Overcome

The Finite Cannot Comprehend the Infinite

Am I the Body/Mind? . 41

You Are Not What You Appear to Be
All Is Well

Identify with the Source; I Am

When the Mind Is Destroyed, Consciousness Appears by Itself

Maya . 57

Maya—the Grand Illusion
Have Dispassion for the World
Self Is the Reality of the World
What Is the Cause of the World?

Self-Inquiry (Atma Vichara) . 69

Trace the I to the Source
What Is the I-Thought?

The World Is Attached to the I
Abide in the I
There Is Only One I

Spiritual Practice (Sadhana) . 87

The Beginning of Wisdom
There Is No One to Awaken
There Is Nothing to Search for
Meditation and Self-Inquiry
The Nature of Mind
Who Practices Sadhana?

Progress on the Path

-xii-

^able o'!) Contents

Surrender . 123

To Whom Do You Surrender?

Liberation Exists Within Yourself
Take Refuge in Your Self
Just Being Is Enough
Be No Thing

Surrender Is Mentally Done

Renunciation . 135

The One Self

Attachment and the I-Thought
You Are Not the Doer
Separate from the “I” and Awaken
The “I” Does Not Belong to You
Be Still; Be Yourself

Trust in the Power That Knows the Way
There Is Only One Reality and You Are That

God . 165

What Is, ...Is God
Who Worships God?

Is God All Pervasive?

God Is All There Is
What Is Dharma?

Self-Inquiry and God-Realization
Stand Naked Before God

Self-Realization . 193

There Are No Mistakes

Right this Moment You Are Totally Free

Leave Everything Alone

Who Becomes Enlightened?

Freedom

-xiu-

able ofi Contents

The Three Virtues .211

Compassion

Humility

Service

The Four Principles of Jnana Marga . 219

A Vision

Principle Number One
Principle Number Two
Principle Number Three
Principle Number Four
You Are Not the World
You Are Not Your Problems
What Does Jnana Marga Teach?

The Three Vehicles of Self-Realization
Three Methods on the Path

Happiness Is Your Real Nature . 273

Happiness Is Unconditioned
Know Yourself; Know Happiness
Happiness Is Here and Now
Abide in the Now

Satguru . 289

Guru and Self-Realization
Love the Sage; Love the Self
True Love Means Surrender
Only the Self Exists and You Are That
Who Is the Sage?

Self, Beyond Mind—The Search for Truth
Guru, Grace, Service, and Liberation
Need for a Living Guru

Robert on Defining the Seeker, Disciple, and Devotee

Stump the Guru .

A Dialogue with Robert

329

^able Contents

Silence of the Heart . 361

You Are the Silence, the Silence of the Heart
The Self That I Love Is You

Remember . 367

A Guide to Sanscrit Terms . 369

-xv-

(&fiin&iny the <zSatqimi

It began over ten years ago with a phone call to a fellow
seeker whom I’d not heard from for a while. For months, then
years, we’d run into each other in the Los Angeles area in our
mutual search for answers to Life’s spiritual questions. So I
half jokingly opened the conversation by inquiring, “Well,
have you found the Holy Grail yet?” To which he responded
resolutely, “Yes!” He went on to explain that he had found an
American guru in the nearby San Fernando Valley who was a
direct disciple of Sri Ramana Maharshi (whom I’d never heard
of); and I might add I was somewhat dubious of even the
word guru, despite a certain attraction to Eastern mysticism.

Nonetheless, after repeated urging, I decided to go once to
meet this somewhat unearthly-looking-and-behaving man
whose teachings, other than a few brief sentences, were
conducted mostly in silence. Although the first time I looked
into Robert Adams’ pale blue eyes, I felt as if I should hold
onto something just to keep from falling in. My friend and I
would still spend many hours over coffee, after weeks of
satsang with Robert, debating with each other (and ourselves)
whether he was “. .. completely nuts, or really onto some¬
thing. ” Little did we know back then how blessed we were and
always will be.

Beginning with that first Thursday afternoon, however,
something about Robert in the ashram-like setting (a U-
shaped apartment complex built around a central courtyard,

-xvn-

Silence oh the (spteart

with steps leading to a pillared streetside breezeway where he
often stood waiting for less than a handful of students to
arrive) was so compelling that I found myself returning to his
presence from then on. The faces and places would, of course,
change quite dramatically over time.

But for the purpose of this particular story, I suppose I
could explain that I was quite ill at the time, didn’t know my
way around the Valley very well, etc., but suffice to say that it’s
been one of my lifelong samskaras (tendencies) to not only
almost always be in a big hurry, but usually late arriving.
Satsang was no exception. When my friend confronted me
with how disruptive this was (although Robert never seemed
to mind or even notice), I felt so humiliated that I vowed if I
were ever late again, I’d simply sit outside the closed door to
receive Robert’s darshan (grace) there rather than in his
apparent physical presence.

So . . . when on the following Thursday I realized that
despite what seemed like my best efforts, I was running
slightly behind schedule, it was with great relief when I arrived
that I saw Robert standing, waiting as usual between the
pillars. As I hurried from the car I watched him turn and walk
toward the apartment where we met, losing sight of him only
as I rushed, breathless, up the stairs just seconds behind him.
When I entered the room, there sat Robert on the floor with
the other satsangees, in the middle of an answer to a question
someone had just asked him!

Was Robert a Jnani? To such questions, he would merely
shrug and answer, “I have no idea what I am.” Can a Jnani
appear (as has often been recounted) in more than one place
at a time? Had he come out to let me know it was all right if I
was late, or was this an illusion? Is, in fact, everything we

-XVlll-

(■Sfiinhiny the e^at^mu

perceive with our senses (as Robert taught us) an illusion of
the mind? Who is there to know the answers to these ques¬
tions? I know less and less with every day that passes.

Jai, Robert, Maharshi
In His service forever, Dana

-xix-

<^y\obeti

Robert Adams is an American Self-realized master and a
direct disciple of Ramana Maharshi.

He was born in New York City on January 21, 1928. His
earliest memories were of a two-foot tall, white-bearded man
standing at the end of his crib, who would talk “gibberish” to
him. The little man stayed with Robert until he was seven.

Then Robert developed a siddhi. Whenever he wanted
anything, a candy bar, a musical instrument or answers to test
questions at school, he would repeat God’s name three times,
and whatever he wished for would come to him. One day,
while preparing for a math test when he was fourteen, he
repeated God’s name as usual. Instead of the test answers, he
had a complete enlightenment experience, a great satori,
which left him stunned and changed. The world was no longer
real to him. He could see only his Self, the Immutable, All-
Penetrating, All-Prevailing Source of Existence. All things, the
body, the world, the mind, were only images superimposed on
the Unchangeable Self. In themselves, they had no real
existence.

He began to change so much that his mother thought he
was going mad. He was no longer interested in eating, in
school, books, his friends or hobbies. He felt alone in the world
among people that he had nothing in common with.

One day he happened on a book, Who Am I, by Ramana
Maharshi. Seeing Ramana’s photograph, the hair on his head

-xxi-

(^silence of the t^pteazl

stood straight up, as if he had been shocked. Ramana was the
little man who had entertained him with gibberish for those
seven years! But now Ramana’s gibberish was completely
understandable because Robert had realized his Self.

Two years after his enlightenment, he left New York to stay
with Paramahansa Yogananda, who immediately made him a
close disciple and friend. Robert Adams requested that he be
allowed to become a monk at the new Self-Realization Fellow¬
ship monastery in Encinitas. Yogananda told him that was not
his dharma, that he must go stay with Ramana Maharshi, who
had a similar, spontaneous enlightenment experience when he
was a youth.

Robert Adams then traveled to Ramana Ashram near
Tiruvannamalai, India, where he remained for the last three
years of Ramana’s life. Robert has said, “It was with Ramana
that my eyes were opened to the meaning of my experience.”

After Ramana’s mahasamadhi, in the ancient tradition of
sadus and Buddhist monks, Robert Adams visited many great
teachers over the next seventeen years, to verify his enlighten¬
ment, to make sure his understanding was complete. Wher¬
ever Robert traveled, where he stopped for a few months, he
was discovered, and a group of disciples would grow up
around him. Robert has always resisted being tied down in
this way, to an ashram or community. He has preferred
remaining alone, in Silence; fortunately, a few years ago he
had a vision of many great teachers coming together, merging
inside a mountain, not unlike Arunachala where Ramana
Ashram is located. He understood it to mean that it was time
to stop and to take on a small group of sincere devotees, to
which he could pass on his understanding.

Many were blessed that Robert had chosen Sedona,
Arizona, as his home. To have experienced a true master of

(^Robert (Slants

Jnana so close at hand is a great fortune indeed to those who
sincerely seek the ultimate happiness, and the Ultimate Source
of all things.

Satsang with Robert Adams is a special occasion where we
can sit in silence, where we can chant the name of God, and
where we can experience the grace and presence of a great
being in darshan.

As Robert has often said, the three fastest ways to enlight¬
enment are to attend satsang, to keep the company of great
beings, to practice Self-inquiry.

Ifyou are a sincere seeker, and ifyou find the all-important
heart connection with Robert, your life will never again be the
same. Doors will unlock, magic will happen.

-xxii-

-xxiii-

<3^ Q4Jeicome ^ou

with c^bll (<pteazt

Om , shanti, shanti, shanti, Om. Peace!

It is good to be with you. I welcome you with all my heart

If you came here to hear a lecture, you came for the wrong
reason. I do not lecture. If you came here to hear a sermon, the
church is down the hill. I do not sermonize. If you came here
to hear a philosophical discourse, again you’re here for the
wrong reason. I do not philosophize. If you came here to hear
nothing, you’re here for the right reason. For there is only One
nothing, and you are That. The most wonderful speeches are
given in silence. Silence is eloquence. Words are just words.
They fly away, they mean absolutely nothing sometimes. As
we sit in the Silence, that’s what the entire teaching is. Be still
and know that I Am God.

If you don’t react to conditioning, then you’re always in the
Silence. You can be in the marketplace, you can be anywhere.
If you don’t react, you’re always in the Silence. You can also be
in a cave, but if you have not learned to control your mind,
your mind will drive you crazy, do all kinds of thoughts.
Therefore, it makes no difference where you are. It’s how you
react where you are that counts.

I love every one ofyou unequivocally, unconditionally, just
the way you are. Ask yourself this question. Why come to
satsang? Ask yourself this question. You come to hear Robert
mumble? You come to hear Robert give a lecture? Or did you

~1~

<^>ilence (rfj the (<pteatt

come to sit with Robert? Of course the last is the right answer.
You came to sit with me in the Silence. In the Silence is where
all the power is. In the Silence is where all the answers are.
Because when we talk, when we use words, words have their
place, but what can the words really do? Think of the billions
and billions of words that have been spoken since the begin¬
ning of time. Where does it end for us, for humanity, for the
world? Think of how many words you spoke since you got out
of bed. Think of all the words you spoke. What have these
words done for you? They are worthless.

So sitting in the Silence is magic. This is when things begin
to happen, wonderful things. Peace comes to you. Happiness
comes to you all by itself. Joy comes to you. When you sit in
the Silence you remember who you are. We come to see we are
all one Self. What does this mean? It means we are not
separate, we are One Self. Think of that. We are all the One
Self.

2

<B%bi$ance in ^zuth

You are notan ordinary person, or you wouldn't be here.

There is something special about you.

You're ready to be out of the show, the show of materialism,
the show of relativity, materialism and relativity.
You're ready to break out of the shell,
the shell of materialism, the shell of relativity.

You're ready to break out of that shell.

Let it happen.

The mind will create all kinds of situations
to stop it from happening.

It will show you all kinds of nonsense.

But you know now that you have the power
to change these things,
to turn from the nonsense to reality!

You can do it.

Work with it.

Peace.

c^at&anq

Let me ask you a question. What is the purpose for your
coming to satsang? Why do you come here? If it’s to listen to
a lecture, you came for the wrong reason. If it’s for entertain¬
ment purposes, you came for the wrong reason. If it’s to
compare the speaker with other speakers, you came for the
wrong reason. There’s really no reason to come to satsang at
all, unless you have an open heart! If you came to satsang with

~3~

Silence of the (<pCeazt

an open heart, Reality will be yours. Not my reality or your
reality, but Reality, the Reality, what people call the kingdom
of heaven, the kingdom of God. Y ou are already That, but you
have so many concepts you cover it up. You have so many
feelings and dogmas and attitudes that you cover up the
Godliness. So you have to open your heart and let your reality
shine through.

How do you do this? By keeping silent, by not being
judgmental, by leaving the world alone. There will always be
something in this world to correct, either in yourself or in your
family or in the world or people. You have learned from
experience that you cannot do this. The correction is always
made within yourself. It is yourself with a small “s” that sees
the problem. But if you try to resolve the problem outside of
you, it will never be resolved. It’s resolving yourself, knowing
the Truth, understanding who you are, that brings you peace
and realization.

Always remember that this is satsang. It is not a lecture or
a sermon or a speech. It is not Robert speaking to a group of
disciples or students, or whatever you want to call yourselves.
It is Consciousness speaking to Consciousness. And since
there is only one Consciousness, you are actually speaking
what I am speaking. You are feeling what I am feeling. There
is only Oneness, Absolute Reality, and you are That.

Try to remember this. There is Consciousness. What you
think you are, male or female, whatever your name may be,
forget about that for a while. Think of yourself as Omnipres¬
ence, All-Pervading.

Do not question it. Do not analyze it. Just allow it to take
over. The Presence, the Power. It starts within your heart, and
begins to spread all through your body, encompassing your

<§&bi$ance ^ruth

body. Your body merges with it, and it continues to spread
until all of us in this room have become it. We’re no longer
human. We have become it. It keeps on expanding and
expanding until the entire world is it. It keeps on expanding,
expanding until all the galaxies, planets, stars and solar
systems are it. It keeps on expanding, expanding until the
entire universe is it. There is no longer anything that is
separate from it. Everything is it.

We may call it Consciousness, the Self, Absolute Reality.
This is it. This is your real nature.

What are you feeling? Try to let go of all your emotions,
your preconceived ideas. All ofyour dogmatic beliefs, all about
your body, or about others. Allow your mind to remain empty.

Feel that I am It, Pure Awareness. I have always been It.
There never was a time when I was not It. The appearance of
the body cannot fool me any longer. The world and all its
manifestations cannot fool me any longer. The universe with
its planets and galaxies and solar systems cannot fool me any
longer. I can see through these things to the Source. I can feel
the Source because I am the Source. I have always been the
Source. There never was a time when I was not.

As far as thoughts are concerned, they do not exist. They
can no longer bother me or make my life miserable. As far as
others are concerned, there are no others. There is only the
Source. I can no longer be deceived.

There is no thing that has ever transpired in my life that
can hurt me. I forgive everyone and everything, and especially
myself.

I am the power and the presence and the glory. If I am
That, so is everybody else. So is everything else. All is well.

~4~

~5~

Daylight breaks
The mind is stilled
Silent, at peace
Movement nil.

No pebble drops into its pool
No ever widening ripple
A placid mirror lake
untouched by thought
Serenity stands on its shore to watch.

The sun appears.

Rays of pure light
Engulf the landscape mind
And in the vanished scene
Birds sing for all mankind.

“Awakening” hand written by Robert
November, 1994

(^'pititual (^Iwakeniny

Never forget the purpose of why you’re here. It is true in the
Absolute Reality there is no purpose. The universe has no
purpose for existing. You have no purpose for existing, in the
Absolute Reality. But as long as you believe you are a body or
a mind, then your purpose is to become no purpose. You
spend your energy becoming nothing. But do not believe
you’re nothing when you haven’t become nothing yet.

7~

(Silence ofj the (pptead.

Be honest with yourself. See where you’re coming from by
the way you react to life situations every day. This will tell you
where you are at, by the way you see yourself reacting to life’s
predicaments. Life will present to you many predicaments,
and it’s up to you to see these things in the right perspective:
never to be frightened, never to believe anything is wrong,
always to know, even though you believe you are a body, you
are not alone. There is the Pure Awareness that is with you all
the time, just awaiting your recognition, awaiting your
understanding that you are not the body, that you are a spirit,
called the Atman, Brahman, Absolute Reality. This is who you
really are. This is your real nature.

You’ve heard me talk on many occasions on the subject of
love, compassion and humility. These three things are very
important to understand. They have to be nurtured and
developed. When you understand what love, compassion and
humility really are, at that time you become a living embodi¬
ment of the truth, and the Self will pull your ego into the Heart
center, and you will become liberated and free.

When I speak to you of all these things, I’m referring to my
own experiences. Therefore, do not take these things I say
lightly, even though I tell you many times to not believe a word
I say. It sounds like a contradiction, but it isn’t. You are not to
believe anything I say, yet you are to reflect and ponder on the
things I say at the same time. Try to become a living embodi¬
ment of the highest truth.

When I had my spiritual awakening, I was fourteen years old.
This body was sitting in a classroom taking a math test. And all
of a sudden I felt myself expanding. I never left my body, which
proves that the body never existed to begin with. I felt the body
expanding, and a brilliant light began to come out of my heart. I

~8~

happened to see this light in all directions. I had peripheral
vision, and this light was really my Self. It was not my body and
the light. There were not two. There was this light that became
brighter and brighter and brighter, the light of a thousand suns.
I thought I would be burnt to a crisp, but alas, I wasn’t.

But this brilliant light, of which I was the center and also
the circumference, expanded throughout the universe, and I
was able to feel the planets, the stars, the galaxies, as myself.
And this light shone so bright, yet it was beautiful, it was bliss,
it was ineffable, indescribable.

After a while the light began to fade away, and there was no
darkness. There was just a place between light and darkness,
the place beyond the light. You can call it the void, but it
wasn’t just a void. It was this Pure Awareness I always talk
about. I was aware that I Am That I Am. I was aware of the
whole universe at the same time. There was no time, there was
no space, there was just the I Am.

Then everything began to return to normal, so to speak. I
was able to feel and understand that all of the planets, the
galaxies, the people, the trees, the flowers on this earth,
everything, were myriads of energy, and I was in everything.
I was the flower. I was the sky. I was the people. The I was
everything. Everything was the I. The word “I” encompassed
the whole universe.

pdove, Compassion, and (zptumility

Now here’s the point I’m trying to make: I felt a love, a
compassion, a humility, all at the same time. That was truly
indescribable. It wasn’t a love that you’re aware of. Think of
something that you really love, or someone that you really love

9

(^ilence the Qpteart,

with all your heart. Multiply this by a jillion million trillion,
and you’ll understand what I’m talking about. This particular
love is like no thing that ever existed on this earth, con¬
sciously. There is nothing you can compare it with. It is
beyond duality, beyond concepts, beyond words and thoughts.
And since the I which I was, was all pervading, there was no
other place for anything else to be. There was no room for
anything, because there was no space, and no time. There was
just the I Am, ever present, Self existent. The love of every¬
thing was the love of the Self. This is why, in scripture, it tells
you to love your brother, and your sister, to love everyone and
everything under all circumstances.

This love couldn’t differentiate. It couldn’t say, “You’re
good, so I love you. You’re bad, so I don’t love you.” Every¬
thing was going on as myself. I realized I am the murderer, I
am the saint, I am the so-called evil on this earth, I am the so-
called goodness of this earth. Everything was the Self. And it
was all a game. All of the energy particles changed from one
thing to another thing. But the love never changed.

Another word for this love was compassion. There was this
fabulous, fantastic compassion. For everything! For everything
was the Self, the I Am. There was no differentiation. There was
not me, what you call “me,” and those things. There was only
one expression, and that was Consciousness.

Of course, I didn’t understand all these words at that time.
There were no words like I’m talking about now. I’m trying my
best to speak intelligently and try to use words to explain what
happened, but I can’t. All the games that people are playing,
on all the planets, throughout the universe, are really the Self.
It was all the Self, and I realized that nothing else existed but
the Self. Yet all of these things, the multiplicities of planets, of

galaxies, of people, of animals, were really the Self. Again,
there are no words to describe this. I felt and knew that these
multiplicities do not exist. Things do not exist. Only the Self
existed, only Consciousness, Pure Awareness.

Yet, at the same time, creation came into existence. And
there’s no creation. We cannot understand this in human form.
As long as we’re thinking with our brains, it’s incomprehensi¬
ble. For how can they both be simultaneously creating each
other? There was creation going on, and yet there was no
creation at all! There was no creation taking place, and creation
was taking place. Sounds like the thoughts of a madman. And
it seemed normal. There’s absolutely nothing strange about this
at all, being nothing and everything at the same time.

So this great compassion was there. Since I was everything,
the compassion was for everything. No thing was excluded, for
the things were really the Self. And then there was this
fantastic humility. The love, compassion, and humility are all
synonymous. I’m trying to break it down to make you under¬
stand, to an extent, what was going on. The humility was there
not to change anything. Everything was right just the way it
was. Planets were exploding, new planets were being born.
Suns were evaporating, new suns were being born. From the
suns the planets came, and then life began on the planets. All
this was taking place instantaneously, at the same time. And
yet nothing was taking place at all.

Therefore the humility is that everything was all right.
There was nothing I had to change. There was nothing I had to
correct. The people dying of cancer were in their right place,
and nobody dies, and there is no cancer. Wars, man’s inhu¬
manity to man, was all part of it. There cannot be a creation if
there is not an opposite to good. In order to have a creation

~10

~11~

(^Silence of the (sftteatl

there has to be opposites. There has to be the bad guy and the
good guy. I was able to understand all these things.

The next thing I remember is my teacher was shaking me.
I was the only one left in the class, everybody had gone, the
bell rang, and I had not even started the mathematics test. Of
course I got a great big zero. But those feelings and the
understanding never left me. From that time on, my whole life
changed. I was no longer interested in school. I was no longer
interested in the friends I had. I won’t go on any more than
that for now, as far as that’s concerned.

The point I’m trying to make is this: If the end result of
realization is love, compassion, and humility, what if we were
able to develop these qualities now? Do you see what I’m
getting at? If we are able to develop this love, this beautiful
joyous love for everything without exception, without being
judgmental, and we have a great compassion for everything
without being judgmental, you can’t have a compassion for
one thing and not for another thing. Then, of course, there’s
humility. Humility means we don’t have to try to straighten
things out, to get even, to stick up for our rights. For there is
no one really left to do that. If some of us were to work on
those aspects, it would lift us up and make us free.

This is something for you to think about. We have to learn
to leave the world alone. We become so involved in politics, in
family life, in work, and the rest of these things we’re involved
in, that we forget that we only have so many years left on this
earth in the body. And what are we doing with all of the time
we have? We’re spending the time on things that do not really
exist, things that make no sense.

Imagine you’re at a play in the theater, and you’re playing
a role, and you’re playing a part, all the time you’re aware that

you’re playing a part. You’re not really that person. It’s only a
part you’re playing. In the same way, you are now playing a
part, but you have forgotten you’re playing a part. You think
your body, the way it looks, the way it appears, what it does,
what it acquires, is real, and you put all your energy into the
game of playing the part. This is indeed a waste of energy. If
you’d only put your energy in finding the Self that you really
never lost. And you can do this by developing the quality of
love, compassion and humility.

This is another method you have to work on. As you’re
working on Self-inquiry, work on the love, work on compas¬
sion, work on humility. Do not just practice Self-inquiry for a
while, and then react negatively to the world, and have your
feelings hurt. Be your Self. Awaken from the dream. Refuse to
play any longer. Look at yourself all day long. See the things
that you do, the thoughts that you have, the feelings that you
have. It makes no difference what situation you’re going
through. It makes no difference what’s going on in your life.
The only thing that matters is what’s going on inside of you.

Karmically, you are put on this earth as a body to go
through karmic experiences. Therefore, the experience you’re
going through is part of the maya, the karma. Do not reflect on
these things. This is important. You have to drop this. Leave
it alone. If you only knew nothing can ever happen to you.
There never was a time when you were born; there will never
be a time when you die. You have always lived. You are
Consciousness. You have always existed. Identify with your
existence. Merge into the existence of nothingness.

I tell you this again and again. Leave the world alone.
Remember what I mean when I say to leave the world alone.
I’m not saying that you should voluntarily, consciously, make

~12~

13~

<'Silence ofy the (<p£eatt

a plan of how you’re going to leave the world alone. You’ll not
be able to live up to it. By leaving the world alone, I mean
entertain in your mind higher thoughts. Always have in back
of your mind, “I am not the body. I am not the doer. I am not
the mind.” Feel this. Feel it deeply. Do not feel good or bad
about it. Do not try to prolong your life. It’s a waste of energy.
What you call your life will take care of itself. It knows what to
do better than you do. We’re very limited in our understand¬
ing about the body, or the affairs of the body, what’s going on
in the body. Do not try to do anything with your body. Your
body will do whatever it came here to do. It knows what to do.
Separate yourself from that. Of course, you may do this by
inquiring, “To whom does the body come? Who has this
body?” and remain in the Silence.

Many of us here this evening are making tremendous
progress. I’ve been talking to many of you who are really
getting there. Of course I use all these terms loosely. There’s
nowhere to get. But I have to talk to you this way, to remind
you to leave yourself alone. I know some of you may be in pain
sometimes, and say, “Well, I want to live a life free of pain,
therefore I have to do things to myself so I don’t feel that
pain.” This is really a mistake. If you could only realize who
has the pain. To whom does the pain come? “I” have the pain.
Then who am “I?” If “I” have the pain it means that the person
who is thinking these things does not have the pain. For it is
“I” that has the pain. You are free of pain, for you are not the
“I” thought. Remember the “I” we’re talking about now is the
thought, the ‘T’-thought that has the pain, and the experience
of being born, the experience of dying, the experience of
having problems. This is the ‘T’-thought that has these things.
Not you.

You have to vehemently make up your mind that the only
thing that matters to you is to become free, liberated, and let
go of all the other things that keep you bound. This is why you
have to work with love, compassion and humility. For if this
is the end result of awakening, if you do this first, the awaken¬
ing will come faster.

Even while I’m talking to you, some of you are thinking
about your body, you’re thinking about the mind, you’re
thinking about your work. This is what keeps you back.
Destroy the thoughts through Self-inquiry. Become free. Do
not fight, do not fear. Observe, watch, look, but have no
opinions for or against. Some people think if they act this way
they will not be able to function in the world. You will func¬
tion. Always remember, there’s an appearance of the body,
and it came here to do certain things, and it’s going to do those
things. It has absolutely nothing to do with you.

It’s interesting, I’m really talking to myself because there’s
only the Self. So why am I talking to myself? I must be crazy.
Many times when I talk to you I have to keep from laughing,
explaining all these things, talking about all these things when
you’re already free and you already know these things.
Sometimes we’re pulled into the illusion. For there’s really no
thing. When we talk of God we’re speaking of nothingness.
God is nothing. And that nothing is you. We get deeply
involved, when we study, when we read, we get deeply
involved in maya.

Why can’t you be yourself and wake up? Why do you have
to go through all these things, and make me sit here talking to
you like this? Just think what I could be doing if I didn’t have
to talk to you. (laughter) I could be watching Tales from the
Crypt! Allis well.

14~

15~

(Silence of the {pteact

Robert, I don’t mean this irreverently, quite the contrary, but
you tell us to try to develop these qualities of love, compassion
and humility that you’ve described as beyond our comprehen¬
sion. How do we try to develop something we can’t comprehend?

Simple. Be your Self. When you are your Self the thoughts
come slowly to you until they cease. When the thoughts
become slower and slower into your mind, and the thoughts
begin to disappear, you automatically become loving, compas¬
sionate, and you develop humility. In other words, the faster
you get rid of your thoughts, the faster these other things,
these other qualities come. So it’s a matter of stopping your
thoughts. It is the thoughts that see everything in this world as
good and bad, right and wrong. As the thoughts begin to
subside, love comes by itself, compassion, humility come by
themselves. So again, we have to stop thinking.

16

Consciousness

Consciousness is not a thing.

You cannot describe it.

It is not the opposite of the world.

And it’s not an object,
and there is no seer to see it.

Consciousness is another word for being.

Being what?

Being no thing.

<§>vetifthincf cps Consciousness

Everything is Consciousness—everything. When you ask
what is Consciousness, there is no valid answer. When
someone asks me to write a book or give a lecture, then I have
to explain Consciousness in about fifty different words, and
each word has another fifty words to explain that, then those
words have another fifty words. So your volume of the book is
written. What does it say? “Everything is Consciousness.” I
could have written one page. And in the middle of that page I
would say: “Everything is Consciousness,” and the rest would
be blank. This is the reason why I do not write books, because
there is nothing to say. See how confusing it is? You read so
many books during the week. Usually you do not remember
what you read, and if you do, it’s intellectual. You are using
somebody else’s words and not having your own experience.

I don’t know what Consciousness is, but I am That. If I
knew what Consciousness was, it wouldn’t be That, because I

17

azt

Consciousness

would be voicing a word and the word would be limited by the
very voicing of the word. So Consciousness is a no-thing. It’s
nothing you can pin down. It’s nothing you can describe. It’s
nothing you can write a book about. Consciousness is Silence.
Sometimes I’m saying Consciousness is Absolute Reality,
which is more words, and I have to explain Absolute Reality.

Consciousness is Ultimate Oneness, Pure Intelligence.
Consciousness is all of those things. But what are those things?
Again they are just words. Sometimes I say Consciousness is
Love, Bliss, Sat-Chit-Ananda, Knowledge, Being, Existence.
Those are just words. And you get a good feeling from the
words, but the feeling doesn’t last too long, for you have not
digested the words. You have not become a living embodiment
of Consciousness.

You are an asset to the human race, an asset to your Self, an
asset to God. You are a wonderful person just the way you are.
Just the way you are! Do not judge by appearances. Do not
even judge yourself. You are a beautiful person just the way
you are. When I say just the way you are, I am referring to
your real Self, Consciousness. You are beautiful just the way
you are. Not what you think you are. Not what you appear to
be. Not what the world shows you, but just the way you are
right now.

Stand up tall. Do not be afraid any longer. There is nothing
that can hurt you. There is nothing in this world that can
actually do anything to you. You are free / You are the substra¬
tum of all existence. Everything is an image on Consciousness.
The whole universe, all the planets, all the galaxies, are all
images on Consciousness. And you are Consciousness. Know
yourself and be free!

There’s only one way to bring peace to the world. There’s
only one way to bring peace to yourself. There’s only one way

to overcome problems. There’s only one way to find yourself.
And that way is to realize that everything is Consciousness.

What do I mean by that? Take everything in this room: the
glass, the lamps, the chairs, the couch, the rug, the light, and
your body. They are not real. They are Consciousness. I am
not saying that Consciousness has produced these things. I am
not saying that first there is Consciousness, and these things
came out of Consciousness. On the contrary. I am saying that
everything that appears to arise, that you hear with your ears,
that you taste with your mouth, that you feel with your hands,
is Consciousness.

There is a substratum of existence called Consciousness.
Another name for this Consciousness is Bliss. It is all-pervad¬
ing. As you begin to merge with it, it becomes you. It is your
real nature. It is self-contained. The world, the universe, did
not come out of it. I’ll repeat that. There are teachings that tell
you that the world is a modification of Consciousness, and we
have to return to Consciousness. There is nothing to return to.
Consciousness is Pure Awareness. It is aware of Itself as
Absolute Reality. The world is like a reflection in the mirror.
Where did the reflection come from? From nowhere because
it doesn’t really exist. You cannot try to grab the image in the
mirror, for you grab the mirror. When you awaken, you
understand that you are the mirror. And the reflection of the
world is like the water in the mirage, like the snake in the rope,
like the sky is blue. Why does this happen? It doesn’t. It
appears to happen. Why does it appear to happen? It doesn’t.
The appearance appears to happen. Why does the appearance
appear to happen? It doesn’t. It appears to appear to appear to
happen. And we can go on like this all night. It is difficult for
the human mind to grasp that you are not what you appear to
be. This is exactly what we have to do. It is not what it appears

18~

19~

Silence ofy the gpteatt

to be. It is not duality. Remember what I’m trying to convey.
There is not Consciousness and the world. There is only
Consciousness, and you are That.

A paradox. A contradiction. You are the paradox. You are
the contradiction. You are not what you appear to be. You are
not what you see. No thing in this world, in this Universe, is as
it appears to be.

Consciousness—the Screen of (^Reality

Now what is Consciousness? We can say that Conscious¬
ness is a power that knows itself. It is self-contained Absolute
Reality. In other words, there is nothing but Consciousness.
There is not Consciousness and you, or Consciousness and the
world. There is only Consciousness. Consciousness, you may
say, is the screen of reality and all of the images of the whole
universe are superimpositions on the screen of reality. When
you go to a movie and you begin to watch the picture show, the
screen is covered by images. You forget all about the screen.
You do not think of the screen any longer. You’re looking at
the images. You identify with the images. You’re enjoying the
movie. The screen is far away from you. Yet if you try to grab
the images, what do you grab? You grab the screen, not the
images. The images never existed, you will grab the screen.
And so it is with us. We forget that we are superimpositions on
the screen of life. And we are really the screen, which is
Consciousness. We believe through many incarnations that we
are the image, we are a person, and there are others, and there
are external things to contend with in this world. But I say to
you these things are false. The images are like water in the
mirage. Like the snake in the rope. Like the sky is blue. Yet

Consciousness

there is no sky, and there is no blue. And when you find out
that the snake was really a rope, it will never frighten you
again. When you try to chase the water in the mirage, you
become disappointed, you grab sand. In other words, they are
optical illusions. This universe, my friends, is an optical
illusion.

It is a dream just as when you’re dreaming. No one can ever
tell you that the dream is a dream as long as you’re dreaming.
You’ll always stick up for your rights and say this is not a
dream. Look, there are riots going on in Los Angeles, fires are
burning, people are being killed. How can you tell me this is a
dream? Yet you awaken from your dream, and the dream
never existed. It came out of you and it returned to you.
Ponder this. The dream emanated from you, it externalized
itself from you. The dream was not limited at all, was it? You
didn’t dream that you were just in one space. You dreamt
about the whole universe, all kinds of things taking place. You
took airplane rides to Africa, you went to the Belgian Congo.
You were a little boy and you grew up, a little girl and you grew
up. All this is in your dream. And again you will fight for your
dream. You will stick up for your rights in the dream. You will
even kill in the dream. Yet, when you awaken, the dream is
gone. The dream never existed. I can assure you, my friends,
that there will be a day in your life when you awaken to the
truth.

This world in which we live is the same thing. There’s
absolutely no difference. You are living the mortal dream.
Consequently, great sages have told us we have to identify with
Consciousness, with the Absolute Reality, not with what’s
going on. The only freedom we’ve got is not to react to
anything, but to turn within and know the truth.

20~

~21~

(Silence of the Q?Ceatt

But how can this be? We look at each other. We see the
things of this world. We feel the pain. We feel sorrow. We feel
happiness. We feel joy. And yet I’m saying to you, that these
things do not exist. There is only Consciousness.

You can only know this when you experience it. So you’re
saying, this is good for you, Robert, but what about me? I feel
the world. I get hurt easily. I’m sensitive. Things bother me. I
see man’s inhumanity in the world, and I cry. I perceive all
these dastardly things going on in the world, they make me
sad. How can you say these things don’t exist? How can you
say there is only Consciousness, when all these things face me
every day?

That’s just it. You have to be ready to turn away from the
worldly things. You have to be prepared to jump within
yourself. To dive deep within yourself. And to sort of ignore
the world for a while.

This doesn’t mean that you have to give up anything. It
means that while you’re going through your daily chores,
while you are doing your work in this world, you simply have
to become aware every once in a while that everything is
Consciousness. Just by being aware of these things that I’m
talking about, you awaken. You become free. Just by being
aware. By thinking to yourself when you get up in the morn¬
ing, “Everything may appear real to me, but all is Conscious¬
ness. Everything is Consciousness. Consciousness is space,
pure choiceless Awareness.”

Consciousness—the c^ubsttatum of Existence

Again, what is Consciousness? Consciousness we can say is
the substratum of all existence. On the scale of evolution, if

Consciousness

you take an object and you dissolve it into its most minute
particles, you will get molecules. This is true of any object on
this earth, whether it’s a human being, a chair, a tree, a cat,
everything will return to molecules. You dissolve the mole¬
cules and you’ll get atoms. When I speak of atoms you can’t
imagine how small they are. Seven million atoms can fit on
one pin head. It’s incredible when you think of atoms. We
know they exist because we can look at them through an
electronic microscope. Now when you dissolve the atom, you
get sub-atomic particles which are even smaller than atoms.
And we cannot even discuss these things or talk about these
things because they’re just amazing. The whole universe is
made out of these things. You go further, you dissolve the
subatomic particles, and you get energy waves. Scientists tell us
the whole universe is composed of millions of energy waves. We
can’t see them, yet great sages in meditation have gone to that
stage. And here is the important part. You dissolve the energy
waves and you get nothing, the void, that Buddhists talk about.
No-mind, Nirvikalpa Samadhi, it’s the same as the void. We go
beyond the void, and we have Consciousness.

How can you prove this scientifically? If you got a giant
electronic microscope, and you put your body under the
microscope, you would see atoms separated by a vast amount
of space. And if you obtain an ultra electronic microscope
which hasn’t been invented yet, you would see your body as
pure space. There would be no atoms, for the ultra electronic
microscope would see through the atom, and you would see
space, total space.

That space is Consciousness. This is not only true of your
body—it is true of the chair, the building, a tree, a flower, an
animal. Everything is space.

~22~

~23~

<'Silence of the Qpteait

That’s why I say so often, we are all nothing. All of us are
nothing. So we are no thing. We are no thing conceivable. We
are no thing that you can ever imagine. Your imagination only
goes down to atoms. You know about molecules. You go down
to atoms, pure energy, but go beyond that. Go beyond the pure
energy. There’s absolute nothing. That nothing is you. That
nothing is Consciousness.

There was once a class being conducted like this. And a
particular student said, “Master, I don’t know what you’re
talking about. How can everything be Consciousness? How can
everything come from nothing? This doesn’t make sense.”

And the Master pointed to a fig tree, said to his student,
"Go bring me a fig.” The student went and pulled a fig from
the tree and brought it to the Master. The Master said, “Break
open the fig.” He did. “What do you see?” “Seeds.” “Bring me
one of those seeds.” He obeyed. He gave him a razor blade and
he said, “Cut open the seed.” It was a pretty hard job, because
the seed was so small. And he cut his finger a couple of times,
blood all over the place. He finally managed to cut open the
seed. And the Master said, “What do you see now?” “Nothing.
In the seed there’s a hollow, absolute nothingness.” And the
Master said, “From this nothing, the entire universe is
produced.”

And this is true of everything on this earth, and in this
world and this Universe. Everything is nothing. There is
absolutely nothing that exists. Remember I am saying that
things do not come from Consciousness. I am saying that
everything is Consciousness. Things do not exist.

Human beings appear to be made so that they see things,
hear things, smell things, touch things, and feel things.
Therefore they think they are living in a material world. In a

Consciousness

relative world. Yet the ultimate truth is, everything is an
optical illusion. Like the snake in the rope. Like the sky is blue.
Like the water in the mirage. These things do not exist. You, as
you appear, do not exist.

Just thinking about this will free you. You really do not
have to do anything else but to consider this. To ponder this.
To try to realize everything is really space. Everything is
Consciousness. To think about this and rest, something begins
to happen to your mind. You begin to lose your mind, (laugh¬
ter)

So you see what Consciousness is on the scale of evolution.
Consciousness is the substratum of everything, of all exis¬
tence. And your true nature is Consciousness. This is whatyou
really are. But you see what you have to do to get there? You
have to go beyond these levels. You have to become a mole¬
cule, an atom, a sub-atom, an energy wave, and then you
return to your real Self, Absolute Reality, Pure Consciousness,
the screen of life.

QWky 'Ctamcent) duality ?

Now why would you want to do this? Why would you not
say, leave me alone and let me have a drink? Who wants to go
back to atoms and sub-atoms and become Consciousness?
Well, this is why the highest spiritual teaching is not for
everyone. Most people are satisfied with life the way it is. But
they are going to die. They’re going to go through experiences.
As long as you live in this world or any other world, you go
through the law of cause and effect, which is like a pendulum.
It swings to one side, which means things are looking up for
you, you’re doing well, everything is great in the physical

~24~

~25~

<^ilence oh the (jpteatt

world. Then the pendulum swings the other way and things
begin to reverse themselves. Your world starts falling apart.
You may get sick, develop cancer, AIDS. You may lose
everything in the stock market. Your family can be wiped out
in an accident, you can become crippled, and if you have
nothing to hold on to, what do you do? You curse life, you
become suicidal. Then the pendulum swings to the right again,
and things get better and better. You become like a yo-yo. You
go up and down, up and down, up and down. This is the way
of the world. This is the way of the universe.

We live in a world of duality. Therefore this is the reason to
become free. For if you go through life the way you are now,
and you’ve not worked on yourself in order to transcend good
and bad, up and down, right and wrong, forward and back¬
ward, you keep appearing again and again and again on these
various planets throughout the universe, taking on various
bodies, and going through various experiences. It never ends.
You may leave your body tomorrow and come back when the
planet is again in the dark ages, and they are having another
Spanish Inquisition. And you become a prisoner and you’re
tortured. Your fingers are cut off one by one. You are reduced
to nothing. Then you come back again in another life, you
become the Vice-President of the United States. You become
Dan Quayle. This is the way of the world. This is life. It will
never change.

Many people have good intentions. They want to make this
a better world in which to live. By a better world they mean
they want to make the world go their way, what they think is
better, what they think is right. All of these things show you
that you are identified with images. Think of the energy put
into this world. Your projects that you do. The work that you

~ 26 ~

Consciousness

are involved in. The things that you believe in. The energy that
you expend. All the clubs you belong to, the societies you
belong to. These are the things that pull you back to the earth.
They pull you back into bodies, one after the other.

’Cum Q4)ithin—<3^>nfaken to the Cvuth

Consciousness is not a thing. You cannot describe it. It is
not the opposite of the world and it’s not an object, and there
is no seer to see it. Consciousness is another word for Being.
Being what? Being no thing. Now we go beyond the realm of
creation, where it becomes ineffable and indescribable. That’s
why we can only explain to you what Consciousness is not.
Consciousness is not the world. Consciousness is self-con¬
tained, Absolute Reality. It is yourself, when you do not
identify with the world. And that only happens to the average
person just as they are falling asleep and just as they wake up.
At that time you are Consciousness. But the feeling leaves you
almost immediately. You begin to identify with the world. You
forget about reality. The method to remember is to catch
yourself all during the day. “Who believes this? To whom does
this come? Who feels this?” over and over again. When you
say, “Who am I?” for some people it is better to say, “Who is
I?” The same thing. What you are really doing is, you’re
finding the source of the “I.” You’re looking for the source of
“I,” the personal “I.” “Who am I?” You’re always talking about
the personal “I.” “Who is this I? Where did it come from? Who
gave it birth?” Never answer those questions. Pose those
questions, but never answer them. Keep it up. Don’t give up.

It’s fine for me to sit here and say the world doesn’t exist,
nothing exists. But when you walk out of this door, the world

27

Consciousness

(^Silence of) the (jpCeazt

hits you right in the face. Some of you become depressed
because you have to go home by yourself, perhaps. You wish
you had a relationship. Some of you feel depressed because
you have a relationship, and you wish you were alone. Nobody
is happy. Everybody thinks something is wrong with their life.
Some of you are depressed because you can’t get enlightened.

Think about what you’re doing. Think about what you’re
feeling. So we begin a program. And from my own personal
experience, I found that Self-inquiry is the fastest way to
awaken, for some people.

Therefore, you passionately get yourself involved in Self¬
inquiry. As I said before, it is true that listening to these words,
and realizing that everything is Consciousness, can awaken
you. But this is only if you are prepared. By prepared I mean
you’ve already transcended all the things we were talking
about. All of the emotions and all of the fears. All of the hurts
and all of the frustrations. If you have already transcended
these things, then that’s all you’ve got to do. All you have to do
is hear the word, and you’re awake. But for most people it
doesn’t work this way. Therefore you have to practice some
form of sadhana.

Self-inquiry becomes very useful. You simply allow
thoughts to come to you, and you inquire in a gentle way,
“To whom do these thoughts come? Who is thinking these
thoughts? I am.” You wait, and you inquire sincerely, “Who
am I? What is the source of this I?” When I say you have to
dive within yourself, that’s how you dive within yourself.
People often ask me how do you dive within yourself? That’s
how you do it. You inquire, “Where does the I come from?”
The I is deep, deep, within yourself. “What is the source of
the I?”

Then thoughts will come to you again. And you repeat the
same thing over again. “To whom do these thoughts come?
They come to me. Who is this me? What is the source of me?”
Me and I are synonymous. “Where does the me come from?”
You do it over and over and over again.

You do not look for a time. Forget about time. Do not worry
about anything. Spend time by yourself. Most people cannot
spend time by themselves. Many people tell me they stay by
themselves a lot. But if you’re going to their house, the TV is
on, the radio is on. That is just like having people in your
house. When I say spend time by yourself, I mean in the
Silence.

Take the time. Sit down in a chair and watch your thoughts,
and begin to inquire, “To whom do these thoughts come? They
come to me. I am thinking these thoughts. Who is this I? What
is the source of the I? Where did it come from?”

It makes no difference how many times you’ve practiced
this before. Whenever you do it, it’s like the first time. This
may be the time for you to awaken. That’s why you should
never give up. You simply sit still. Do not try not to think. For
if you try not to think, you will have thoughts that you can’t
get rid of. You will be full of thoughts if you try not to think.

You do nothing, absolutely nothing. You’re watching the
thoughts come. As soon as the thoughts come, in a gentle way
you inquire, “To whom do these thoughts come? They come
to me. I think them. Who is this I? Where did it come from?
How did it arise? From where did it arise? Who is the I? Who
am I?” You remain still.

The thoughts come again. You do the same thing again and
again and again, in a gentle, peaceful way.

~ 28 ~

~ 29 ~

04}ho oO/tn q$?

Feel your reality ,
in the stillness ,
in the quietness ,
w/ien there is no mind ,
wo thoughts , wo uWs.

Mo are you then?

You just are.

IAM. I AM.

I am not this.

Iam not that.

IAM.

I am That which has always been.
I am That which will always be.

I AM THAT I AM.

When you take a true picture of yourself, when you look at
yourself, when you get up in the morning and you sort of
become the witness to all of your actions, you will notice that
you revolve around three words: “I,” “me,” and “mine.”

There is usually never a moment in your material life when
you do not use these words. If every time you said “I” you were
aware of what I really means, that would be a different story.
But, unfortunately, we do not use I that way. When we refer to
I, we’re talking about the body. We say, “I feel wonderful, I feel

~ 31 ~

(salience the (jpteait

04)ho (sOm q)?

sick, I feel happy, I feel sad, I feel this, I feel that.” We also say,
This is mine, this belongs to me, no one else can have it. It’s
mine alone.” Me, me, mine, mine, I, I. We’re always involved
with those three words, aren’t we?

And this is what keeps us human. This is what keeps us
back from realization. Those three words. It would be difficult
to speak without those words. For instead of saying, “I feel
good,” you’d have to say, “Feel good.” Instead of saying “I feel
sick,” you’d have to say, “Feel sick.” Instead of saying, “I feel
depressed,” you’d have to say, “Feel depressed.” Instead of
saying, “This is mine,” you would say, “This is.” Instead of
saying, “I am angry,” you would say, “Angry.”

It would make you sound ridiculous. But, at the same time,
it would make you understand that you are not that “I.” You
are not the “mine.” You are not the “me.”

You will immediately catch yourself and realize when you
say “I” you have to be very careful what you say after that. For
“I” can never be sick. “I” can never know anything unhappy
or happy, good or bad, rich or poor. “I” is beyond all those
things.

I is Consciousness. I is God. I is pure Awareness. Imagine
if you will, whenever you said “I” you realized truly what this
I means to you. You’re no longer speaking of the small I, the
body I, the I that does not exist. You’re speaking of God.
Whenever you say “I,” you’re speaking of God.

Therefore, if you said, “I am sick,” that’s blasphemy. How
can God be sick? If you say, “I am unhappy,” same thing. How
can this thing called God be unhappy? Even if you say, “I am
happy,” how can God be happy according to human standards?

As you begin to realize what this I really means, you’ll
automatically be lifted up to a higher state of Consciousness.

Just by realizing continuously what I really means. Yet you
have to do this every day. You have to catch yourself every
moment.

Think how many times today you used the term “I.” And
what you said after that. Think how many times today you
said the word “me” and “mine,” as if you were an individual.
As if anything can belong to “you” personally. As if you really
own anything, and you have to protect it and take care of it as
if it is yours.

<BO>m <sMy <£P ossessions?

Everythingbelongs to God. Everything is God. It is true that
you appear to be using it. But never for a second believe that
it belongs to you.

This is why when people realize this truth, it’s so easy for
them to share. But when one believes they are the body, then
they have to hoard, and hold onto something and fight for
their existence and stick up for their rights.

Is it any wonder that you don’t wake up? How can you wake
up when you’re fighting for your rights as a human body?
When you’re trying to protect the things that you think you
own? This is maya, total maya. The belief that you own
something. That you are something. It’s all an illusion. There
is only God, there is only Consciousness. Everything else is an
appearance.

Enjoy the world if you can. But do not allow the world to be
your master. Do not allow the world to tell you how things are.
Do not allow the news or the newspaper or the way of the
world to confound you and confuse you. Or to make you sad
or angry, or upset you. After all, it’s the same as seeing a

~32

33 ~

Silence the ^pteacl

Q/'lUko <s#>\m q$?

movie. You look at the movie and you see all kinds of dastardly
things going on. But then you catch yourself and you say, “It’s
only a movie! It’s not the truth.” And so it is with life. You
observe everything that’s going on in life, you watch, you look,
you see. Yet you never react. You’re never for or against. You
understand, and this makes you free.

Q4$hete the “q)’’ ^3ome (=p?wm?

What do you think is the difference between this teaching,
jnana marga, and the rest of the yogas, prayer, religions or
whatever? What is the basic difference? In every teaching
besides advaita vedanta, there is a personal I. Think about
that. Let’s take hatha yoga. The “I” learns postures and the ego
becomes expanded because you can say, “I can stand on my
head and twist my feet,” and you give it a Sanskrit name. But
you still say, “I can do this.” So the I has become inflated. Take
raja yoga, the eight-fold path. Now these things are good.
There is nothing wrong with these things. I’m not putting
them down. But there has to be "someone” to learn the yamas
and niyamas, the virtues. There is someone who is learning all
these things. The I has learned to become virtuous. Take
kundaliniyoga. I am focusing on the chakras, on each chakra.
There is always I and I and I. Take prayer. I am praying to
God. Again there is nothing wrong with these things. But the
reason we call this the direct path is because this is the only
teaching that investigates the I. We’re not interested in the
effects. Whatever the effect may be, we realize that the I is
behind it. We realize that if we find the I, then follow it to its
source, everything else will be wiped out and we’ll become
free. This is why it is called the direct path.

Also, what is the difference between meditation and jnana
marga? Because most of you realize that on this path it is not
really necessary to meditate. So what’s the main difference
between meditation and this path? In meditation there’s
always an object of your meditation. And again the I is
concentrating on something else, where you exclude every¬
thing except the mantra or the words of your meditation,
whether it’s God, or whatever. In this teaching you simply
inquire for the source of the I. “Who am I? Where did the I
come from?” Even when I say to you, where did I come from,
some of you are relating to your body, aren’t you? You’re
thinking where did I come from, as a body? But that’s not what
we mean. You want to know where the I came from, not where
you came from. If you find out where the I came from, you will
realize that you do not exist. You never did and you never will.
That’s the point—where did “I” come from?

And after you get used to this kind of thinking, whenever
you use the word “I,” you will never refer to your body again.
For instance if you have a cold, you usually say, “I have a
cold.” Only now you will catch yourself and you will laugh,
because you will say, “I has the cold.” Sounds like bad English.
I has the cold and it has nothing to do with me. So where did
the I come from that has the cold? And as you follow the I, it
will lead you to the source where there is no I, there is no cold.
You can use this method for everything. “I am hungry.” Well,
catch yourself and realize that “I” is hungry. I is not my real
Self. I is hungry. Yet my real Self can never be hungry. I’m
tired, I’m depressed, I’m happy, I feel beautiful, I feel wonder¬
ful. It’s all the same thing. As long as you are referring to your
body you are making a big mistake. Separate yourself from I.

~ 34 ~

~ 35 ~

04)ho B^tm G$?

<^)ilence ofj the q_ pteatl

Silence q)s Hinhevstanhinq
Cohere q)s b)0o <§Min$ to £)uiet

There is only one I actually. That I is Consciousness. When
you follow the personal I to the source, it turns into the
universal I, which is Consciousness. Begin to catch yourself.
Begin to realize your divine nature. You do this by keeping
quiet. The fastest way to realization is to keep silent. Yet you
have to know why you are keeping silent. This is why you can’t
tell this to the average person. If a person has no inkling of
advaita vedanta, you can’t say, “Keep silent.” For then it
means just to be quiet. They don’t realize it means to go deep,
deep, deep within to that place where Absolute Reality lives,
and that’s the Silence.

Actually, the human body cannot keep silent. There is
something else that enters the Silence. It has nothing to do with
your humanity. Then suddenly after years, perhaps, of medita¬
tion and previous lives, you can be mature enough to really
know what this path is all about. When I give this practice it’s
not for you as a human being. You appear to be able to go
through it as a human being, but I can assure you that your
humanity has nothing to do with it. When you enter the Silence,
you have gone through a profound peace, bliss, Pure Aware¬
ness. That’s what the Silence is. It’s not being quiet. It’s beyond
that. It’s not just quieting your mind. Like I say all the time, it’s
understanding that there is no mind to quiet. When you realize
there is no mind, you automatically become silent. When you
still think you’ve got a mind, you make every effort to quiet the
mind and you can’t. How many of you believe that you can
quiet the mind through effort? You can’t do that. It’s not the
effort that makes you quiet your mind. It’s the intelligent

understanding that you have no mind to begin with, then you
just keep still and everything takes care of itself.

If you have to meditate, by all means, meditate. This path
is never against any other method, due to the fact that they all
eventually lead to awakening. You have to do whatever you
have to do. But for those who can understand what I’m talking
about, and realize that you’re dealing with no mind, no body,
no world, no universe, no God, the awakening comes immedi¬
ately because there is no one who is sleeping. Do you follow
this? If you think you’ve got something to overcome, if you
believe that you’ve got to work on yourself, you’ve got to make
some kind of effort, it will be hard. After all, who makes the
effort? The ego. Who is telling you all these things you have to
overcome? The mind. You think you have to overcome your
bad habits, you have to overcome past karma, you have to
overcome samskaras. That’s all a lie.

I realize that I talk about these things sometimes. It sounds
like a contradiction, but I am sharing with you the highest
truth. There are no samskaras to overcome, because they
never existed. There is no karma to overcome because it
doesn’t exist. But it does for the immature students. They have
to work on something. So I explain to them there’s karma,
there are samskaras, there are latent tendencies that have got
hold of you, and you have to transcend them. Yet I’m telling
them a lie. But they really need to hear that at this time of their
evolution, otherwise they cannot work on anything else.

“q)” (^Nothing to (Overcome

But the truth is, you have nothing to overcome. Think
about that. If you had something to overcome, you would

~ 36 ~

•37

<g £ilence ofi the (pOCeatt

never overcome it. For it is the nature of the mind to play
games with you. As soon as you overcome one thing, another
thing pops up, and you have to overcome that. When you
overcome that, something else pops up. Say you have a
drinking habit and you say, “I’ve got to overcome this.” You
may overcome it. It leads to bad temper. It leads to you telling
lies. Then you have to overcome telling lies. It never ends until
you begin to realize “I” has nothing to overcome. Then you
start working on the I. It is then you finally realize it’s this
personal I that’s been giving you this trouble. That’s an
advanced state, but that’s also a lie, due to the fact that the
personal I never existed. But you don’t know that. Because you
think the personal I exists, you have to use Self-inquiry to lead
you to the place where you realize the personal I does not exist.
It never has, and it never will. Yet wouldn’t it be wonderful if
you could just sit down and realize all this in a flash and
become free?

We’ll not allow ourselves to do that for some reason. We
want to play the game of overcoming. So we say, “I’ve got to
work on myself. I’ve got to practice. I’ve got to meditate. I’ve
got to be alone. I’ve got to do this and I’ve got to do that.” But
I say to you, there is nothing I have to do. You just have to
realize what I’m saying and awaken. And that’s it. Again, who
has to awaken? It’s all a pack of lies, but I’m using words. How
can the Self awaken? The Self never went to sleep. Do you not
realize who you are now? You’re not a mortal human. There
are no words to express what you are. You have to find out. So
you practice. But while you’re practicing your sadhana, keep
it back in your mind someplace, there is really no one who
practices. After all, who does the practice? It’s your body and
your mind. If you can only remember there is no body or

Q4Jho <sO>m qH?

mind that exists, then there is no one to practice. So while
you’re practicing, remember that.

I know you’re going to walk out tonight and you’ll say,
“Well, what do I do now?” Look at it this way. As long as you
feel body consciousness, and as long as your mind, so-called,
still has the power to make you feel this way and that way,
then you have to do some practice. Otherwise your body/mind
will control you. The highest practice is Atma vichara, Self¬
inquiry. The reason I’m talking to you like this is because I can
feel that all of you who are here have been through many paths
and you’re not newcomers, so you’re ready for this. You’re
ready to hear that there is no practice, there is no God, there is
no enlightenment, there are no past lives, there is no you, and
you’re free.

Pohe (finite Cannot 4&omy>iehend the Q^nfjinite

People still want to know, when everything is gone, what’s
left? What is the substratum? The cause? The underlying cause
of all existence? There has to be something that holds it all
together. Says who? There is nothing to hold together. Re¬
member also, that the finite cannot comprehend the Infinite.
So when I say there’s nothing that holds anything together, I
mean there’s nothing that words can describe. When I use
words like Bliss or Pure Awareness, Consciousness, Sat-Chit-
Ananda, Parabrahman (and Parabrahman is very powerful
because I mean it’s beyond Brahman), what can be behind
Brahman? Silence. There is no such thing as Parabrahman,
due to the fact when you think of it, it signifies an object to
you. For instance, a place to be in. A place to be in the Silence,
that is Parabrahman. You’re wrong. There’s no place. There is

38

~ 39 ~

<g§ilence ofj the Q?Ceazt

no Silence. There is no Parabrahman. Then what is there? Find
out. Only you can know, yourself. For there are no words to
describe it.

You have to come to terms with your life. That takes total
honesty to do that. You can’t go on fooling yourself. Look how
you run around from pillar to post. You go here, you go there.
You’re always searching. You’re always looking. You’re always
striving. For what? Some of you think that you’re going to find
a teacher up in the sky someplace, and you’re going to go
searching for that teacher until you find him or her. No such
teacher exists. When you finally settle down, and start going
into the Silence more often, your teacher will appear to you
and you will find he is none other than yourself. You may ask
then, “What am I doing here with you people?” I am yourself.
I can see that very clearly. There is no difference between you
and me. When you feel depressed, when you feel angry, when
you feel out of sorts, that’s me you feel. When you feel happy,
when you feel enlightened, when you feel beautiful, it’s also
me you feel. All this is the Self, and I am That. Some of you still
think I’m talking about Robert. Robert has nothing to do with
this. I’m speaking of Omnipresence. I’m speaking of nothing.
And I think to continue speaking is a waste of time.

q) the <S%o$y/(sMin$ ?

7” is the first pronoun. The second pronoun is “am. "
When you realize 7 am," you become free.

This is called “Being. "

Not being this or being that. Just plain Being.

JAM.

It's quite a different situation than identification
with the body.

The body will continue to have experiences, yet you will not.

You will be free from the whole ball of wax.

Yet to other people, to others, it will appear as if you re doing
whatever you're doing.

It appears as if what you're doing is a reality.

Yet when you discover the truth about
yourself and you awaken,
you will no longer be connected to your body.

At the same time you will appear to be a body to others,
and they will see the games you are playing.

But you will be free from that.

Yet your body will continue to play the games.

It's a paradox.

Your body appears as the water in the mirage,
as the snake in the rope.

But yet, when you awaken, you are no longer the body.
And there is nobody.

But the body appears to others as being real.

This is why when a Jnani dies, or appears to be suffering,
nothing is really happening to the Jnani.

But to the ajnani all kinds of things are happening.

40 ~

~ 41 ~

<2 $Silence oj the Q^teait
They see suffering.

They identify with sorrow, or death, and
with everything else.

Therefore, I say to you, do not disturb yourself
by these things.

Inquire “to whom do they come?” and be free.

^-ou (B^he <s^ot QOhat ^-ou (BPffeat to <=pe

What would you do if you woke up in the morning and
found that you have no body? There is no body there. You look
under the cover. You’re looking for it but you can’t find it. And
you also realize the thoughts that are thinking these things are
not you. You are somewhere as the witness to the thought that
you are no body, and there’s no body there. Yet you feel your
Essence in everything. In the furniture, in the bed, in the
windows, the whole Universe. And when your wife or husband
comes in, or children, they see you as a body. Yet you know
one hundred percent that you’re not a body. You never were
a body. There is no body. This is an awakening. The paradox
is that you are sure there is no body, yet the body appears. And
when you become adjusted to yourself, you see a body which
is supposed to be you, but yet it’s not there. You know there is
no body, and there are no thoughts. Yet something is thinking,
and something appears to be a body. This is a great paradox.
What we call maya, the grand illusion.

Right now you believe that you are a body. You are certain
of this. But I can tell you truly you’re not. Y ou never were. And
you will never be. Yet you identify with what you call a body,
you go through experiences in life, you’re happy, you’re sad,
you cry, you laugh, you’re sick, you’re healthy, you’re poor,

CB$>m qH the Gpoty/GMind?

you’re rich. And you go through all the vicissitudes of life,
making a career out of yourself, putting yourself in various
positions, sticking up for your rights, fighting for your survival,
and going through all these things that do not exist. This is the
way you are now. This is the truth about you right now. You do
not exist. Yet you appear to exist. You appear to have two arms
and two legs and you move around, and you do things, and you
feel things, and you go through things. But do you?

I can tell you for sure you don’t. You never have and you
never will. When you realize this about yourself, you stop being
hurtable. No thing can ever hurt you again. Your feelings can
never be hurt, because you have no feelings. You just exist as
Pure Consciousness, Pure Awareness. Try to follow me on this.
This is our true nature right now, Pure Awareness, right now.
There never was a body that you had to deal with. Yet the
impression is so strong with many of you, that not for a
moment does the thought leave you, that you’re not a body. The
thought is always with you, that I am the body, I am the mind,
I am the experiencer. All spiritual teaching ends with this
understanding. Even the priests and the rabbis and the minis¬
ters and the yogis and the rest of these people. What they are
trying to teach and what they are trying to tell you is this
ultimate truth, that you are not a body, but they don’t realize
this themselves yet. But all spiritual teaching is for that purpose.

C bPU g$s Q/Uelt

On Tuesday I attended my mother-in-law’s funeral. So
somebody asked me, why am I not crying? I therefore started
to cry, and I cried louder than anybody else. They had to go get
me a towel. That’s how much I cried. And it made everybody

~ 42 ~

■ 43 ~

(Sjlence the Q^teatt

happy. I cried for about ten minutes, I don’t know why.
Somehow when people ask me to do something, I do it. Yet my
feelings never change. What feelings are those? All is well.
Those words never come to my mind. But there is something
that knows, all is well. There is some mysterious power that is
continuously felt. This power of course is the Self, Conscious¬
ness. It is beyond Consciousness, beyond the Self. What is
called I is simply an image superimposed on this power.
Therefore, I can be the body and the power at the same time.
So the body can cry, can laugh. It can go through all sorts of
experiences, but no body is affected. The experience is like a
burned rope. It’s of no value. You can’t do anything with a
burned rope. If you try to touch it, it falls apart. So the feelings
and the emotions and everything else that this body expresses
is like a burned rope. It’s of no value.

There are no words to explain this, but I can assure you
that everything is unfolding as it should. No matter what’s
going on in your life, or what appears to be going on in your
life, believe me it’s all for your ultimate good. There is nothing
in this universe that can ever hurt you, no matter how things
appear and how they look. First of all, you’re not your body.
There is nothing hurtable. You’re not your mind. So there are
no thoughts that can attract you or destroy you or repel you.
You’re beyond that. You’re above that.

As long as you believe that you are the body/mind phenom¬
ena, you’re going to have problems. That’s that. I don’t care
what kind of problems you may think you have, it makes no
difference how severe. As long as you believe you are the
body/mind phenomena, you’re going to have problems. You
may feel justified in having problems. You may feel it’s not
your fault. You may feel it’s karma. You may feel it’s all kinds

<B&m <2$ the <S%o$y/<§Mind r ?

of things, but as long as you believe or you feel the body/mind,
you will have problems, because this is the kind of world in
which we live, the world that doesn’t exist. Seems real to most
of us. And if we believe we are the body/mind, then we believe
the world is real and we believe we have to pray to God for
solutions. We do all these things and we still suffer.

Suffering will only stop, not when God answers your
prayers, but when you awaken to the truth of your own Being.
Then you are born again, so to speak, in a new reality and all
is well. But you say to me, “But Robert, sometimes you appear
to have problems too. Your karma evolved as it does all the
time, or your physical body doesn’t feel too good, or some¬
thing is going on.” My question to you is this. Who sees this?
There has to be a seer and an object. You’re seeing yourself.
When you catch on to your awakening, the world does not
change. You just see it differently, that’s all. You acquire a
feeling of immortality. A feeling of divine bliss, so to speak,
when things no longer have the power to affect you. In other
words, in the state of enlightenment, cause and effect does not
exist for you. But those who are living in the world are going
through their karma, and they’re beholding themselves
everywhere they look. For the world, remember, is only a
projection of your mind.

Now what kind of a projection is it? It depends on your
state, where you are coming from. We’re all looking at the
world and we see something different. All we are seeing is
ourselves. There are no problems. None exist. None will ever
exist. The only problem that exists is what? Who can tell me?

Kuwait.

You’re close. What do I always say, “Why does a problem
exist?” It has to do with your nose. That’s right. You’re

• 44 ~

■45

(salience the (<pteaict

allowing your thoughts to go past your nose. That is the only
reason you have a problem. If you catch yourself quickly
before it gets past your nose, where is the problem? The
problem is in your thought, only in your thought. When your
mind slows down, when the thinking process slows down,
where is the problem? It doesn’t exist. But if you allow the
thoughts to go past your nose, then there are all kinds of
problems which you come up with. You believe this is wrong,
and this is not right, and this is hurting me, and you become
doubtful, suspicious and apprehensive and fearful and so
forth. Because you’re thinking. You may say how can you exist
without thinking? Quite well, thank you. The trees do not have
to think. The grass does not have to think. The world does not
have to think of itself. Everything is taken care of.

There is a power that knows how to take care of everything,
and will also take care of your body, so-called, if you stop
thinking. But as long as you think I am the body, then you
have to take care of your body, and watch it, and feed it aspirin
and cold remedy and proper foods and do all kinds of strange
things with your body. But your body and your mind are not
your friends. They come under a law of their own. Did your
body ask you today, this morning, when it’s time to get up? It
got up. Did it ask your permission? It does what it wants. You
have nothing to do with the body or the mind. When you
become depressed, does your mind ask you if it can become
depressed? It does what it wants. When you become fearful,
does your mind ask your permission? It does what it wants.
When your body catches a cold, does it ask you if it can catch
a cold? It does what it wants. But what have you got to do with
those things?

CStAm the

ofy'hentvfyf with the (^Source, ©0

A lady called me this morning from Santa Cruz. And she
asked me, “How long do I have to come to satsang before I
become Self-realized?” So I told her, “Before I answer let me
ask you, ‘What do you mean by “I”? And what do you mean by
satsang?’ ” And she hung up. I wonder why she did that. But
it’s something we can talk about, or I can talk about since I
have nothing else to do. How long do “I” have to come to
satsang? How long does “I” have to come to satsang? Does “I”
need to come to satsang? What is this elusive “I”? What does
it mean? How long does I have to come to satsang? The reason
you would call it I, is because you misinterpreted the I. You
identify the I with the body. So you’re saying, “How long do I
have to come to satsang?” Then what is satsang? Sat means
Being, being with the Self. Therefore I and satsang are the same
thing. What this means is, satsang is your everyday experience.
It’s not a place you go to. It’s how you live your life. I makes the
separation, but there is no separation. There is one Whole, and
you are That. But as long as you are separating I from your Self,
then you always question. I feel sick. I feel happy. I feel de¬
pressed. I feel out of sorts. Who is this I? Where did it come
from? How does it originate? What is its source? Find out. Dive
deep within and find out where the I came from. A good way to
do this is, before you go to sleep say to yourself, “I’m going to
find my ‘I’ when I get up this morning.”

Just before you wake up, before you start thinking, the I
presents itself as I Am, as pure Consciousness. Catch it then.
That’s the best time to catch it. As soon as you awaken in the
morning, in that split second before you wake up and start
thinking. Before the thoughts come of the world, that is the

46 ~

~ 47 ~

<z£ilence ofi the Q^teazt

time to catch the I Am, the Absolute Reality. For at that
moment, this is exactly what you are, Pure Awareness, and
then the thought comes, it covers it up. So remember this: If
you tell yourself when you go to sleep, “Tomorrow morning
as I open my eyes I am going to identify with my source, I
Am,” and you will. Even for a second, it will change your life.

As you keep on doing this every morning, every morning,
every morning, the time between your awakening and the
thought coming to you will become larger. And the space will
expand and expand and expand, until you are able to stay in
the Awareness. Of course at that time there will no longer be
a you. There will only be the Awareness. Try it. You have to
investigate. You have to intelligently dive deep within yourself
and find the Source of your I.

Do not accept your feeling. Do not accept your thoughts.
Watch yourself feeling miserable, and do nothing about it; you
can become the witness to it. That will help too. But it’s better
to ask, “Why am I feeling miserable?” And realize that you said
why am “I” feeling miserable. I. I’m identifying with my body
as I. Again a mistake. The I in itself is pure harmony, joy,
happiness. But when you identify the I with your body/mind, it
becomes the personal I which doesn’t even exist. But you’re
making it exist. You’re identifying with it. Why do you want to
identify with your personal I? Your personal I never existed.
Why have you befriended it? Why do you keep giving it power?
Why do you make it grow?

Take your power back. Expose yourself, the real you, and
forget all this nonsense about a mind and a body and thoughts
and the world and God and everything else that appears to be
real. Compare yourself with no one. Be true to your Self. Never
mind how much progress somebody else is making. Forget

<B& m the

about saints and sages and other people. You are the only one
that ever existed and there is no one but you. You are all the
saints and the sages and the seers. You are everything. Every¬
thing is the Self, and you are That. Why not awaken to this?
Why do you want to play games with yourself so long? By
believing in reincarnation you just come back again and again
and again, and hoping to have a better life next time. There is
no better life.

As long as you are born of the flesh you have to suffer. This
is the way of the flesh. Do not try to improve your life. You’re
making a big mistake. For there is no question about it, if you
use positive thinking and use your mind, you may appear to
improve your life. But remember, this world in which you live
is a world of duality. For every up there is a down. For every
forward there is a backward. For every good there is a bad.
Therefore, whatever improvement comes in your life, it will
last for a while, then will subside, then you become miserable
again. Then you will be happy again when you get what you
want, and then that will not last, and you will be miserable
again. You’ll start sticking up for your rights and fighting for
your survival. Then as you get what you want, you’ll be happy
again. You’re like a yo-yo. You go up and down, up and down.
And no matter how much I talk to you about this, you’re going
to keep on doing this. So why am I talking? I don’t know. I
have no choice.

You know, I never asked to do this. Strange how things
turn out.

Too late now.

All I know is that all is well, and everything is unfolding as
it should. All I know is, that happiness is your true nature.
That you are not what you appear to be, and things are not

~ 48 ~

~ 49 ~

0 ^iience ofi the (pteact

what they appear to be. Nothing can ever happen to you. Why
do you worry so much? What are you afraid of? Your life? You
have no life. What you call your life is nothing. It doesn’t exist.
It’s no thing. You worry about your hair falling out. Worried
about needing a new pair of shoes. You’re getting fat. What a
waste of energy. Like feeding a dead horse. We’re all going to
wind up in the cemetery, so what difference does it make what
you do.

Last week I was talking to a body builder. He was telling me
about his muscles. And what he does for this muscle, and what
he does for that muscle, and how well he eats. So I told him,
that’s great, you’ll be the healthiest man in the cemetery. And
that’s about the gist of it. Why not use your energy for con¬
structive purposes? Now this does not have to mean that you
ignore your body. Your body will always take care of itself. As
a matter of fact, the more you practice your sadhana, or realize
your true identity, your body will be able to take better care of
itself than you were ever able to take care of it, because it
comes under a different law. It knows what to do. It will do
whatever it came to this world to do, but it has absolutely
nothing to do with you. Wake up to that fact.

Stop thinking about yourself so much. About getting a new
job, losing a job, about working or not working. No one is ever
happy. Those people who work are miserable because they
have to work. Those people who don’t work are miserable
because they can’t find a job. And when they find a job they
join the miserable ones who can’t stand the job. Where is
peace? Peace is your real nature. It’s within you. It is you. Look
for it and you’ll find it. Seek and ye shall find.

<s/lm qJI the p$o8psMin8?

Q4)hen the <§Min$ ps J^estwtjed,
Consciousness B&'p'peats bij ptsebfo

Even in religion, they try to focus on the God of their
religion in meditation, focus on an item. This does not awaken
you. It may improve your concentration, make you a little
more one pointed, yet it will not awaken you. The only time
you will awaken, is when your mind is destroyed. There has to
be no mind left. When the mind is destroyed, Consciousness
appears by itself.

When I talk about losing your mind, I am referring to
emptying the mind. Actually destroying the mind. Annihilat¬
ing the mind. Totally, totally transmuting the mind. Not to
change it to something else.

For in truth, you are already That. You have always been
That. But as long as you go on crying over spilled milk, when
you look at your life you see the things that upset you. You see
the things that make you angry, the things that make you
worried. The things that make you fret and become excited.
What a waste of energy. What a waste of time.

There is no thing in this world that is that important. As
long as you believe it is important, you will never awaken. You
can’t. For you are caught up in maya. You are playing the
game. You are still involved in the leela. You’re feeling things.
You’re reacting to things. You’re arguing about things. You’re
debating things. You’re still not sure.

As long as you keep acting this way, you cannot awaken.
Just think of the things you thought about today. Just for
today. Since you woke up. The things that went through your
mind. The actions you took. The emotions you had. The
worries you had. The feelings of sadness or joy, or any kind of
feelings. All this is a waste of your precious energy.

50 ~

~ 51 ~

Silence cfj the (=pleatt

This is what keeps you back. This is what makes you a
human being. This is what makes you worldly. It’s up to you
to understand what I’m saying and to begin to get a program
of non-action in your mind in not reacting.

When something takes place in your mind or in your
world, you become the observer. You become the witness. You
do not react. You try to keep your mind centered in the now,
in the moment. You do not think about ten minutes ago, or
about yesterday, or about last week, or about last month, or
last year, or five years ago. You do not consider what some¬
body did to you ten years ago, or how you were wronged.
Those are the things that keep you back.

Do not consider where you are going to go next week. Or
what you have to do to become enlightened next month. Or
the teacher you have to go to see next year. Or the book you
have to read next week. You do not think about these things.
All of these things are part of maya. They are part of the grand
illusion. They pull you back into materiality.

How can I do all the practical things I need to do in the state
of mind of "I am not my body?”

Ifyou really knewyou were not the body, that question would
never come to you. The body will always take care of itself. Who
grows oranges on the orange tree? Who makes the grass grow?
That same power will take care of your body. You don’t have to
worry about it. Everything will be okay. Your body will not walk
into the street in front of a truck, unless you are day dreaming.
You will be awake! Being awake is not being in a stupor.

Because you believe yourself to be a body, you believe you
are the doer, in charge of everything, making meals, walking,
shopping. But you have nothing to do with that. Being awake

ef) the

is being aware of all of this that is happening spontaneously,
which has nothing to do with you. Grass grows spontaneously,
but we can imagine we are making it grow with our willpower.
The same with the activities of our bodies. Actually, they
function better when you don’t think about them. Therefore,
be yourself and watch what transpires.

Why do we have to go through such trials and tribulations in
the world? Whatis that part of it about? Ifwe are Consciousness,
then why do we have to bother with the material world?

You don’t. Ask yourself who has to bother. There is no one
to bother. It is like a dream. You are dreaming the mortal
dream. Pinch yourself. Wake up. Be free. There is no one who
has to do this. See, we’re caught in mesmerism. We’re hypno¬
tized into believing we have to go through experiences, so it’s
natural to ask why. But the truth is, no one is going through
any experience. It just appears like that. Just like the water in
the mirage, or the sky is blue, or the snake in the rope. It
appears that way, it appears real. But once you know the truth
you’re free. There will be no one going through anything. Only
when you hold on to the “I am the body” idea, do you appear
to go through experiences. But as soon as you give up the body
idea by realizing I is the body, not you but I, then you become
free. You never were the body. There is no body. But I do
admit that in some people the mesmerism is so strong that it
is most difficult to believe you’re not the body. Because you
see it, you observe it, it feels and acts. This is the reason you
have to do Self-inquiry.

What is the difference between the no-mind state and
enlightenment?

~ 52 ~

~ 53 ~

(sf/ilence of the (<pteazt

The no-mind state is where you come from practicing to
the place in the Silence where there are no thoughts to bother
you any longer. You get there through Self-inquiry. That’s the
fastest way. But that’s not Self-realization. Self-realization is
when the mind is pulled into the spiritual Heart. Liberation,
moksha, Self-realization, is when the mind that’s left over in
the Silence is pulled completely into the spiritual Heart. At that
time the whole mind, the I, dissolves completely, and you are
free. So the no-mind state is a very high state. It’s a state of
bliss, but there’s still somebody left to experience the bliss.
When the bliss is pulled into the Heart, there is no one left to
experience anything. Therefore, you no longer say, “I’m in the
no-mind state.” At that time there is nothing to say. Can you
understand that?

Seems clear to me.

As clear as mud. Again, the important point to remember
is that you should keep asking yourself questions. Do not
make statements. Ask questions to yourself. The mind hates
that.

Robert, it seems that it comes down to the mind or the ego
trying to dis-identify with itself, and trying to identify with the
mystery. Is that enough to produce the shift?

That’s enough to produce the shift. When the mind begins
to wonder about itself, it becomes weak. So the more you ask
the question, the weaker the mind becomes. If you make
statements, you keep saying to yourself, “I am God, or I am
Consciousness, or I am Absolute Reality,” the mind likes that,
because it wants to become God. It wants to be God, so then
the ego thinks it’s God. And you walk around with a chip on

cf the <=fpfo'diy/<3Mind?

your shoulder. But when you go the other way, when you ask,
“Who am I, where did the mind come from?” the mind
becomes weak, it doesn’t like that. As you said, it begins to see
the mystery and becomes weaker and weaker. It devours itself,
so to speak. But of course the ultimate truth is, there is no
mind, so do not concentrate on the mind doing anything. But
ask, “To whom does the mind come?”

But Robert you said to ask questions, but earlier you said to
say that “this is not me. ” That’s not asking a question.

It’s like asking a question. This is not me!? Who am I?

Robert, can this all come about if you just surrender?

Oh yes, definitely. If this appears to be complicated, all
you’ve got to do is give it all up. Say, “Take it God. It’s all
yours.” And let go so completely, there’s no room for a
question. You say, “Take this, God. Take the whole burden. I
no longer care.” But it is difficult also because it means you
have to give everything to God and not worry about a thing. Do
not concern yourself with anything in this world; realize God
is taking care if it. That’s true surrender.

~ 54 ~

55 ~

©Maya

Everything that you feel hear, touch, smell and taste is maya.
Everything is maya, the grand illusion.

Most of us really do not understand what maya really is.
My trying to explain maya is maya.

Everything that your eyes behold,
that you believe is so important, is maya.
Everything that you hear,

Everything that you read,

Everything that you try to do to better yourself
It's all maya.

The water in the mirage, that is maya;

Something that appears to be real,
but upon investigation you find it's not.

The whole world is like that.

The whole universe is like that
Do not befooled again.

Do not take anything seriously.

Turn within, do not react.

The turmoil, the chaos that appears to be in this world,
is not the truth. It is not Reality.

It is something that comes and goes.

This too shall pass.

But your center is God,

Consciousness, Absolute Reality, Brahman.

Those are all synonymous.

That is the Peace that exists.

~57

<^ilence ofi the (zpteatl
oMaifa—the ^}atnd Q^Uusion

What we call maya is very powerful, and so it appears. It
grabs you in its clutches and makes you believe that things are
happening in this world, and makes you believe that things are
moving, changing. That’s the picture it shows you. There are
very few people who can go through a day without being
affected by maya. Think about yourself. Just today, how have
you been affected by maya? Believing something about your
body, or about somebody else. Or about a situation in your
life, or about the world. Or about the universe, and feeling it.
That’s maya.

Here’s an example; I’ve told this story before. One day
Buddha and his chief disciple, Narada, were walking along a
country road. Buddha was discussing maya. He explained that
the tree, the river, the mountains, the beauty, all of the bugs
and the mosquitoes, animals, it’s all maya.

And Narada said, “But Master, how can this be? It sounds
virtually impossible. I can grab the tree. I can grab your arm.
I’m stung by a mosquito. I feel this thing, there’s a bump on
my arm. How can this all be illusion? I don’t understand.”

And Buddha said, “I’m thirsty. Go get me a glass of water.”
There was a town nearby, so Narada went to the town and
knocked at the door of the first house he saw. An old lady
opened the door. She said, “What do you want?” Narada said,
“My master would like a glass of water.” She looked him over
and saw that he was handsome, well built, healthy, and she
said, “Come in.”

He went into her house and there was a beautiful lady
sitting on a chair. The woman said, “This is my daughter. Isn’t
she beautiful?” Narada was astounded at her beauty. He said,

<gMaya

“She is the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.” The old lady
said, “How would you like to marry her?” And Narada said,
“Why not?”

So, he married the girl. They had a big wedding, and all the
people in the village came. The next day, he got a job. He was
a potter by trade, and he made beautiful pots out of clay. He
did this for a living. After the first year, they had a child, and
he was able to afford a beautiful house. He had a mortgage
payment, had to pay taxes. So he had to work harder and hire
people to help him. He had employees. He had to pay them
salaries, take out taxes, workers’ compensation, everything
else. Then, after two years passed, another child. He was
completely enmeshed in family life. Some days were good.
Some days were bad. A couple more years went by, three
years, four years, five years.

One day there was a big hurricane, very powerful hurricane
that came into the town. The place was getting flooded.
Narada said, “What are we going to do?” All his furniture was
being ruined. Everything he believed he owned was getting
wet, totally ruined. He took his family up onto the roof. There
was a clothesline on the roof. All hung onto the clothesline.
The hurricane became stronger and stronger and stronger. His
mother-in-law was washed away by the flood. Narada said, “I
guess we didn’t need her anyway, she was old.” But the
hurricane was still very strong, and his wife and two children
were holding on. One of the children was washed away, and
Narada became very distraught. But he was holding on with
his wife. Then the other child was washed away. He became
very upset, but he said to himself, "At least I have my wife. We
can have more children.” Then his wife was washed away, and
he said, “What happened to my family? They’re all gone!

~ 58 ~

~59

<^£ilence ofi the (<pteart

Everything I worked for is all gone! Everything I strived for is
all gone! I’m going to end it all, commit suicide.” So he let go
of the rope.

The next moment, he found himself sitting next to Buddha,
with a glass of water. He looked at Buddha and Buddha said,
“It’s about time you brought me my water!” (laughter) So
Naradalooked at him and said, “Now I understand what maya
is!”

This is just like us. We become so enmeshed in the world.
We think things are real. Everything bothers us. We become
angry. We become upset. But the truth is, you are not maya.
You are Absolute Reality. You are Total Awareness. You are
the Self. Know who you are and wake up. Awaken and be free!

It’s so simple. Words make it so complicated. The fact is
you were never born, you can never die. There is no power
that sustains you, maintains you. You do not exist the way you
appear. The same is true for the whole universe. It’s only a
reflection. It’s an optical illusion. Like the mirage in the water,
or the water in the mirage. They’re both the same. The water
is the mirage and the mirage is the water. So the appearance is
of water. But when you try to grab it, you grab sand. Every¬
thing you grab in this world is like sand. It seems so real. And
then your emotions grab a hold of it and give it more power so
that the maya becomes stronger and stronger and stronger.
Until you’re in such a state that it takes you many incarnations
to get rid of all your fears, all the frustrations, thoughts about
the past, samskaras. You have made these things real for you,
but they do not exist. None of these things are real, but you
have made them real. You have done it to yourself. Therefore
when you leave your body, you appear to go through an astral
plane, and you take a rest. You meet your long lost relatives

<§Maya

that you couldn’t stand. And then you go onwards and you go
back into a body again. And you continue and continue and
continue. But it’s a lie. You are making it the truth. It is your
truth because you believe in this. And you refuse to let go.

Of course you’ve got a choice. And this is your choice.
Whom shall I follow this day, God or mammon? Which simply
means, following mammon is following the world. The world
of illusion, which keeps tricking you, making you believe you
should do this and do that and to go here and to go there.
When you follow God, you’re following yourself. You’re
following the dharma, swarupa. You no longer feel sorry for
yourself. You no longer feel guilty about the sins of
commission/omission of the past. Your mind becomes clear,
peaceful. Your mind becomes like a mirror. And since the
mirror is unable to see itself, it sees its reflection in the world
as peace, love, harmony, joy. As you continue to work on
yourself this way, the day comes when all this is gone, and you
are gone. You become nothing. A good for nothing. You go
beyond nothingness, which is ineffable. Something that can’t
be explained. For there are no words or thoughts to under¬
stand this. Yet, you’ve got it all within you. Everything you
need is within you. You are the One.

(<ptave J^is-passion for the Q4)ot!$

One of the things you have to work on yourself is passion.
You must give up all passion for this world and the things in
it. You must develop dispassion. Now to some of you this
sounds terrible, not to have passion for the things of this
world. Never to be passionately in love. What I’m referring to
is having dispassion for the world of maya, and having total

~60

~61

Silence ofy the Q^teait

passion for the Self. As an example, if you’re intimate with a
boy friend or a girl friend or a husband or a wife or a camel or
a yak, whatever turns you on, you no longer think you’re with
that kind of a being, whatever it may be. Rather you start to
understand that you’re loving your Self. The camel becomes
your Self. Your partner, your lover, becomes your Self. It is
your Self that you are in love with. Not the self called Robert or
Mary or Jane or Joe, but the Self as Consciousness. You have
total passion for your Self. As you love the trees, the sky, the
world, you no longer think it’s a world of maya, a world of
illusion, but an extension of your Self, the Absolute Reality,
the Effortless, Choiceless Pure Awareness. It is your Selfyou’re
making love to. When you think it’s another human being, this
spoils it. When you think it’s a person, place or thing, this
spoils it. It is always the Self.

When you begin to understand this, you begin to move in
the right direction. Otherwise, if you’re looking at people as a
person, place or thing, you’re making a terrible mistake. That
brings sorrow. It brings unhappiness, brings jealousy, fear,
frustration. The way you know you’re with the Self, there is
freedom. No restrictions. No laws. No rules. No regulations.
You’re always with the Self. You’ve always been the Self.

<z§elf) ©h the (^Reality o<fj the QDotld

So there are two ways of seeing this world. One is maya, the
grand illusion. You want nothing to do with this. This is what
creates problems. This appears to create animosity, sorrow.
But then there is the real world. The world of the Self. The
world of Bliss. The world of total joy, unalloyed peace and
happiness. This is what you really are. This is your real nature,

~ 62 ~

&Maija

your swarupa. You have always been this and you will always
be this. Forget about the past. Do not worry about the future.
Have total faith, total joy, in yourself. Only when you can
understand yourself as All Pervading Consciousness can you
possibly understand that all the universe is an emanation of
your mind. Everything that you see comes out of you.

You are the Creator. You are the God. You are the Avatar,
the Atman. All the Gods that you’ve heard of, the Buddha,
Krishna, Jehovah, Allah, they’re allyow. You are That. You are
nothing else but That. You’ve always been That. Tat Twam
Asi. This is you.

Do not concern yourself about this world. For mortal man
can never understand this world at all. This world appears
very confusing, very chaotic. There seem to be so many
wonderful things in this world, and yet there seems to be so
much destruction, man’s inhumanity to man. Dastardly
things going on everywhere, intermingled with the beauty and
joy of this world. It becomes very confusing to the mortal man.
Then you see yourself getting older and older. All of your
material plans have gone by the wayside. And even if you have
accomplished great things, you have to leave them when it’s
time to go. You start to think to yourself, “What is life all
about? Who am I? What am I really? What is the Source of
everything?”

And no one has ever explained these things to you. So you
believe life is a chance. A chance that you’ve been born, you’ve
gone through prevailing conditions. You get old and you die.
You have no idea what’s going on. Therefore I say to you, leave
the world alone. Do not believe you have to bring peace to this
world. There is a greater power that knows the way, that takes
care of this world, this universe. And it needs no help from

63 ~

Silence the (£)tead.

you. The only way you can help this world is by awakening,
becoming Self-realized. How do you help this world by
becoming Self-realized? When you become Self-realized, you
are no longer a body. You are All Pervading Consciousness,
the Absolute Reality. You are Boundless Space. You become
the trees, the mountains, the rivers, the animals, the insects,
the birds. You have become everything. You are the Self. The
imperishable, immutable Self.

But when you can’t see this, you act as an independent
agent. Thinking you’re going to make this a better world in
which to live. Sticking up for your rights. Trying to change
people’s opinions. Protesting about this and about that. I
admit all these things are necessary in this world, but this is
what maya is all about. Maya is a wonderful illusion. It makes
you believe you’ve got to do something to change things in this
world. But I can assure you, nothing will ever change. It will
appear to change for a while. Things will appear slightly better
at times, and they’ll be slightly worse at times. There will be
cataclysms, destructions. All sorts of things happening to this
world. This is the nature of this world. It has absolutely
nothing to do with you. Yet at the same time you are the
world. I always contradict myself, this is the teaching. It’s a
total contradiction. But the ultimate reality is, let go of
everything. Know yourself as Omnipresence, and you’ll be
total happiness and total freedom.

Everything begins to take on a projection of yourself. And
since you are beginning to discover that you are Pure Con¬
sciousness, the world starts becoming Pure Consciousness
also. It’s like going to a movie, and the screen is pure Con¬
sciousness, the images are the world. Prior to your awakening,
you’ve been identifying with the images and you have no idea

<sMayfa

there’s a screen. Oh, you know it somewhere in your mind.
You have a slight image of the screen, but you don’t think of
that, because the images are very entertaining. You watch a
love movie or a war movie, or this kind of movie or that kind
of movie, and you get all wrapped up in the objects. But of
course if you try to go up to the screen to grab any objects,
you’re going to grab the screen. This is what happens when
you awaken. You realize that you are the screen, which is
Consciousness. And you realize that everything in the world,
everything, the whole universe including God, is superim¬
posed on you. It’s not Reality. It’s a superimposition. But you
identify with the screen which is Consciousness, and you
tolerate the superimposition. Yet you realize it’s not you. You
have nothing to do with it and you do not identify with it.

So in the same instance your body goes through all kinds of
experiences, good and bad and in between, but you are always
aware that you are not the body and no body exists for you.
You know in reality, there is no superimposition at all. It does
not exist. It appears to exist, but it does not. It’s like hypnosis.
You’re hypnotized to believe a white poodle is following you.
And sure enough, when you wake up out of the hypnosis you
keep looking back; you actually see a white poodle. Your mind
will actually picture the white poodle, and you will believe it’s
real. Nobody else will see it, but you will, until the hypnosis
wears off.

In the same way we see people, places, and things, and they
appear so real to us. We identify with them, and we suffer
accordingly. But as you practice every morning, catching
yourself between waking up and thoughts coming, little by
little, slowly but surely, you will begin to realize yourself more
and more. And the day will come when you awaken. Never

~ 64 ~

~ 65 ~

Silence ofj the (*pCeazt

mind how long it takes. Do not look at time. Think of how long
it took you to be what you are now. Be yourself. Identify with
your reality. Try to be yourself at all times.

QOhat ©As the ^ause ofj the QiSotlft?

Why do you appear to have a body, if you don’t have one?
Why do you appear to be playing these games, if they’re not
real? The answer is, you’re not playing any games. There is
nobody doing anything. This is something difficult for most
people to comprehend. Nothing at all is happening. But I
move, I swim, I play golf, I go to work, I watch television, I’m
doing all these things. These things appear to be happening.
You have to remember the question. To whom is it happening?
Who is experiencing this? And of course we remember it’s the
ego that is experiencing this. Then you remember again you
have no ego. There is no ego. An ego never existed. If it did,
where did it come from? Who is its creator? Whatever you
believe in, there has to be a creator to have created it. If you
believe you’re human, something created you. You say your
parents created you, and you go back in time to who created
them, and who created them. You go back to the very begin¬
ning. Everything you believe in, there has to be a cause. Even
when I tell you there is no cause. Therefore there cannot bean
effect. You think I’m crazy, and I am. Who wants to be sane?
To be sane means you conform to society and to the happen¬
ings of the world. You think alike. I can assure you, nothing
exists. And I can assure you when you think about nothing,
the nothing that you are thinking about does also not exist.
Once you think about nothing, you spoil it. Because it becomes
something.

Be aware that the world is egoless. The world has no cause,
so where is the effect? If there is no effect, there is no cause.
How could the world have a cause? Where would it come
from? When you dream, you can say that your dream has a
cause. You are the cause, because you are dreaming. But can
you say that while you’re dreaming? While you’re dreaming
and you’re in the dream, you believe that the world has a
cause, like everyone else does. And you get involved in
everyday activities in the dream. You have good experiences
and you have bad experiences. And then I come along and I
tell you you’re dreaming, but you don’t believe me. You say,
“I’ll show you if I’m dreaming, Robert.” And you pinch me. I
say, “Ow.” And you say, “See, is that a dream?” And I try to
explain to you it’s a dream pinch, but you don’t believe it. You
think it’s real. Then you go across the street. And then you’re
walking down the street and a car hits you, and you’re bleed¬
ing all over the street. I run over and I tell you, “You’re
dreaming, don’t be too upset. It’s okay.” You start cursing at
me and shaking your fist at me. “How can you say that? Look,
I’m bleeding all over the place.” Then something funny
happens. You wake up. Where does the dream go? Where did
the blood go? Where did the car that hit you go?

Think of your personal experiences that are upsetting you
right now. Think of the problems that you think you have even
while I’m talking to you. Some of your minds are thinking of
something else, problems, and you believe it’s real. You’re
thinking of who you like or don’t like. What you’re going to eat
for dinner tonight. All these thoughts come to you because you
have not trained yourself how to deal with your thoughts. And
you’ve got preconceived ideas. You have got concepts.

As an example you come and you look at me. You don’t see
me fresh and new like you see yourself. But you compare me

~ 66 ~

~ 67 ~

with Krishnamurti or with this guy or the Bhagavan Ramana
Maharshi or Nisargadatta or the garbage cleaner or with the
janitor or whoever you wish to compare me with. This is
exactly what I’m talking about. Your mind becomes filled with
preconceived ideas. I am really nobody. I am nothing special.
So what you see in me is not real. You’re seeing your own
projections. You’re seeing yourself, in other words. And if you
have not developed yourself and have awakened to Pure
Consciousness, then you’re seeing something worldly. And
you make comparisons. You say I like, I don’t like, it’s good,
it’s bad and so forth. You’ve got to take control of your mind.
You’ve got to realize your mind and your body are not your
friends. They feed you the wrong information. It appears right
for a while, but then it becomes wrong again. Do not listen to
your mind. Stop the thoughts before they get to the edge of
your nose. That’s all I’ve got to say.

~68

c 'Sebf)-^n<j / uh'y

(AtmaVichara)

Think how many years you’ll be going through life,
believing you're a body, a mind, an ego.

The situations you’ve been through.

The agonies, the ecstasies,
the dualities.

You’re beginning to see now that all of those things belong
to the I-thought, to the personal self,
which is not really you.

You are total freedom, having absolutely nothing to do
with the personal self.

You simply have to ask yourself, “Who is this personal self ?
Where did it come from? How did it arise?

How did it get a hold of me, and make me believe
I’m human?

That makes me feel I was born? And I have to die?
What is this personal self? Where did it come from?”

And as you follow the personal self, the I -thought,
You’ll begin to see it never existed.

It was never born.

It is absolutely nothingness.

And you’ll become radiantly happy,

Full of Love,

Full of Peace.

race the <oJ? to the Source

As you try to understand these things, as you begin to
ponder what I’m talking about, you look for a way to remove

69

Silence of the (zpteavt

everything from your mind, to empty the mind. You begin to
inquire. To whom do all these thoughts come? To whom does
the feeling of humanity come? To whom does this universe
come? To whom does the ego come? And you smile to yourself.
You keep still.

You will soon realize that everything comes to you. It
comes to you. I think these things. I believe this and I believe
that. I feel hurt. I feel this way, I feel that way. A new revela¬
tion comes to you. “I.” You begin to see that the I-thought is
the culprit. From the moment you get out of bed in the
morning, you begin with the I, and it never ends till you fall
asleep. Therefore the only peace you ever get is when you are
in deep sleep. When you are in deep sleep, the I returns to the
Heart, to the Source. There is nothing going on. Nothing
happening. At that time you are unconsciously Self-realized.

This is why when you get up in the morning and you say to
yourself, “I slept well,” you’re talking about the 1.1 slept well.
What you really mean to say is, the I wasn’t interfering with
your life. But as soon as you begin to think, you say, “I am late
for work. I have to catch the bus. I have a headache. I have to
eat breakfast.” And you go on and on with this I, and it never
stops. All day long it’s I, I, I, I. Think about this. Am I not
telling you the truth? You’re always thinking about, “I this,”
and “I that.” Till the night time comes again, you go to sleep.
And again the I goes back into the Source, into the Heart, and
you’re at peace once more. Until you wake up and it starts all
over again. After doing this for a million years, you get to the
stage when you’ll ask yourself, “Who am I? What is this I? How
did it arise? From whence does it come?” And this is the
beginning of wisdom, when you inquire for the Source of the
I. You ultimately begin to trace the I to the Source. When you

^. e ^)~^. nc l' uin L

do this finally, when the I is in the Source, it is just like when
you’re in deep sleep, except that you’re conscious. Think about
this for a moment.

In deep sleep you have no I, for it has returned to the
Source. You’re totally happy, but you’re unconscious of it.
When you attain what we call Self-realization, it means the I
has returned to the Source while you’re awake. There’s nobody
left to think. There’s no one left to worry, or to fret, or to be
unhappy. You have merged with the Infinite, with the All-
Pervading Brahman. If you understand this, and you practice
this, you will become the happiest person in the world. For on
the way to finding the I-Source you begin to feel happier and
happier every day. The old thoughts melt away. The old you
dissolves. You become free.

Whatever you identify with, that’s what you become.
Therefore, stop identifying with worldly things. Identify with
yourself. Now, how do you do this? It begins in the morning,
as I told you before. That’s the time when your mind has been
free. Because you slept, you’ve had a semblance of peace.
Being in deep sleep is an unconscious method of Self-realiza¬
tion. You’re realized when you are asleep, but you are uncon¬
scious. So you’re not aware of it. You want to be consciously
asleep. When you’re consciously asleep, you’re awake. You’re
awake to your Self, to Reality to what Is, to I Am.

When you get up in the morning, immediately before the
thoughts come, identify with the Self. Now how do you do this?
Simply say to yourself, “I... I.” That’s all you have to do. “I... I.”
You’re doing this before your thoughts come. Maybe in the
beginning you can only do this for a couple of seconds, but
that’s good. Even those couple of seconds will make your day
fulfilled, and you’ll feel happy during the day. As time passes,

~70

71 ~

<g Silence (rfj the gpteait

as I explained before, the space will widen and you’ll be able to
remain longer periods in I... I... I... 1.

Now when thoughts come, simply ask yourself, “To whom
do these thoughts come? They come to me.” And you hold on
to the “me.” You do not let go. But do not concentrate on the
me. Just hold on to the me. You concentrate on the Source of
me. It’s like you’re holding on to a rope, and you’re going to its
source and you let go. Letting go is the Source. Total Aware¬
ness, Absolute Reality, I Am That I Am. Do not try to analyze
this. Just allow it to be.

Remember, the finite mind cannot comprehend the
Infinite. This is why it is important to always see where you
are coming from. What were you involved in today, as an
example? In retrospect go back to this morning. What was the
first thing you did when you opened your eyes? You should
have been aware that the I-thought has traveled from the
Heart center to the brain. And now you are awake and you feel
.your body and you feel the world. You should not go any
further. You should now attempt to work on yourself, where
you send the I-thought back from the brain, back to the
spiritual center, the spiritual Heart. You should immediately
attempt to do this. In other words, you should not continue
the game of the I-thought telling you things about your body,
about the world. And you should not flick on the TV and
watch the world news, for that pulls you further into illusion.

But you should immediately begin to inquire, “What
happened to the I? Where is the I? Apparently it must be in my
head, for I am aware of my body and the world, and I am
identifying with it.” This is the way you should talk to yourself,
and you ask yourself the question, “But how did that I -thought
get to my brain?” and you stop. As you begin to think about

^vtfj-Q^nciuiz'y

this, you are abiding in the I, and if you’re really abiding in the
I, the I-thought begins to travel backwards. It begins to leave
your head and begins to travel backward to the Heart. But you
have to catch yourself. This is the first thing you should do
when you awaken.

I know most of you forget. Yet you should have some clue
that tells you, “It is time for me to abide in the I. I’m not going
to allow the I to bring all of these thoughts into my head.” You
forget about your work for the moment. You forget about
getting dressed. You forget about the time, and you realize the
reason you’re thinking about your body or about anything else
is because the I-thought has gone into your brain, and it now
forms the body and the mind. You begin to see that the mind
is nothing more than a conglomeration of thoughts. If there
were no thoughts, there would be no mind. Can’t you see what
you’re doing? As you begin to think this way, the I-thought
begins to return to its source by itself. In other words, you
don’t really have to send the I-thought back to the Self or to
the Heart center. You simply have to inquire what the I-
thought really is. You’ll come to the conclusion it is, after all,
only your thought. If the I-thought really does not exist, then
my body and the world does not exist. Just thinking about
these things, you begin to feel peaceful, happy.

I know you’re saying, “Well, I don’t have the time to do this
every morning. I’m late for work. I’ve got to get dressed. I’ve
got to eat breakfast.” But again I say to you, this is not yoga or
meditation, where you have to take time out to meditate and
then go about your business. This is the superior method of
Self-inquiry. And if you just begin to practice this Self-inquiry,
you will notice that when it’s time to get dressed, eat your
breakfast and go to work, your body will do this in record time.

~ 72 ~

~ 73 ~

<g§Uence of the (ipteazt

You will not even be thinking about these things. But yet your
body will shower, do what it has to do, and you’ll be out of the
house and you’ll feel great. This is the difference between Self¬
inquiry and meditation. You are not meditating on anything.
You’re simply inquiring about your I-thought. And each step
will come by itself. You will not have to think about what I’m
going to say next. For instance, as you are working on yourself
this way and thoughts come to you, something within you will
immediately say, “To whom do these thoughts come?” You’re
not planning this. You have not rehearsed. And by the way,
never rehearse. Never plan what you are going to do in the
morning. Unless it’s spontaneous it will not work. Remember
this: Self-inquiry should be spontaneous. It should not be a
drudgery. It should not be something you planned.

Q4Jhat q9s the -thought?

You simply begin to look at yourself. You open your eyes
when you wake up. You begin to realize that just before you
woke up, you were in a total state of peace, in a no-thought
state. You were in an effortless no-thought state. But now you
have allowed the I-thought to go to the brain, and you’re
thinking aboutyour body and the world. So the thought comes
to you, how do I get back to the effortless no-thought state? By
abiding in the I. Where did the I come from? Who am I? Surely
the I must have a source. That source must be quite a powerful
thing in itself, whatever it is. In other words, I’m assuming
that you don’t realize that the source is the Self. But just by
thinking that the I-thought came out of it, it must be some¬
thing powerful. Then why did the I-thought come out of it?
What is the I-thought? I keep calling it the I-thought. It’s a

thought. There is no I. This gives you a clue. It makes you
happy. For you realize you’ve got nothing to fight. As a matter
of fact, some people just become still and they say nothing
else. In other words, when you realize the I is a thought you
become still, and the I will immediately disappear. There will
be no thoughts. You will feel wonderful. Then you can get
dressed and go to work, but the momentum of what you did
this morning will follow you through the day. It is true that
you will get involved in the world, yet you will find that you
have time to think of your Self. You will abide in the I. It will
happen all by itself and you will find in your work that
whatever you do, you’re making the right decisions without
thinking. Things do not disturb you. You are at peace with the
world. You feel blissful. You have no desire to tell people about
this. People have to be ready. They have to lift themselves up
by their own bootstraps. People have to be prepared to be able
to practice Self-inquiry. And the preparation was usually
made in a previous life.

Therefore, something tells you it is a waste of time to write
books, to go on public television, to try to expand the teaching,
to do anything. You simply live your life in a wonderful way.
Everything takes care of itself, and you notice that your
consciousness is expanding. It began by thinking of yourself,
and now it is expanding to take in the world, to take in the
universe. And then you begin to see everything in this uni¬
verse as an image on the screen, and you are the screen. You
never worry again. You never fear anything again. You
understand the wholeness of everything, and there are no
mistakes. All is well. Nothing is wrong.

But you have to do these things every day, especially in the
morning when you first open your eyes. That is the time to

~ 74 ~

75 ~

<gj hlence ofi the (<pteazl.

really work on yourself. If you wait until later, then maya
becomes too strong and grabs a hold of you, causing you to get
really involved in the leela and the game of life. But as you
work on yourself every morning, the body takes care of itself,
the mind becomes extinguished, the ego turns into humility,
you become happy. There is nothing you have to do, and again
your body will do whatever it came here to do. But you have
nothing to do with that. You are at peace.

The mature aspirant of Jnani will always work with their I.
That’s where it begins. Trace the source off Where did my I
come from? Watch it, observe it. Watch when you get up in the
morning. You feel so peaceful in the beginning, but as soon as
you start to think about I, all your problems, your troubles, the
world, gang up on you. But if you begin to catch yourself, grab
hold of the I, “Where did it come from? Where did it just come
from? A moment ago I was at peace. A moment ago everything
was all right, but now I’m worried, I’m upset, I’m thinking
about my job, my future, my finances, my health. Where did
the I come from that thinks about these things?” And trace the
I back, back into the Heart, which is the Source.

People have asked me what they are supposed to look for in
the Heart. Well remember, the Heart we’re talking about is on
the right side of your chest. Two digits from the center. That’s
your spiritual Heart. That’s the Source. The I comes out of
there. So don’t follow the I externally, follow the I internally.
You see the difference? Don’t go catching the I as it thinks
about the world. We reverse the procedure. You want to follow
the I back to its Source.

So you can see the Source as a brilliant Light a thousand
times more brilliant than the sun. You can imagine the I going
back into that Light, merging with the Light. Or, if you’re

bhakti inclined, devotional, you can think of your favorite
saint or sage, and feel the Heart center as that sage. And the I
goes back into the sage or into the Light. The sage absorbs
your 1.1 can assure you that if you practice this only a little bit,
you’ll have some amazing results. But for some reason, most
people have to be on a spiritual path for years practicing some
form of yoga before they can come to that stage where they can
follow the I back into the Source. Yet there are those people
who have had no previous experience. They were just able to
see that the Source of their I is the Self. And they became
liberated that instant.

^he QOoztd <B%>ttached to the

The secret is not to allow the I to take you over. How does
the I take you over? You begin to allow it to identify with
worldly things. And you do that by thinking about them. Now
as an example, you get up in the morning and you start to
think you’ve got to conserve water. You’ve got to pay your
rent. You’ve got to buy new clothes. And a million other things
about I, I, I. But if you keep remembering that all worldly
things are attached to the I, you become introverted. And the
1 goes back into the Source.

As you keep doing this every morning, either watching the
I, or asking to whom do the thoughts come, you’ll notice a
subtle change is taking place in your life. The first change you
will see is, you develop a semblance of peace that you never
hadbefore. You’ll just not be disturbed by anything, andyou’ll
be surprised at yourself. You’ll notice the things that used to
make you angry no longer have the power to do that. You 11
notice that the things you feared, for instance: depression,

76

~77

(^ilence of the (fffteait

recession, loss of memory, whatever, your wife ran away with
the milkman—maybe that’s a good sign—but these things
will no longer disturb you. You’ll just feel good. You’ll feel
good all over. And that will turn into pure happiness. You’re
just happy for no reason. Can you imagine what it feels like
just to be happy without interruption for no reason? It has
absolutely nothing to do with the world. It doesn’t mean you’ll
go round laughing hysterically all the time. It means you just
feel happy.

You hear about the war in Iraq and you’re happy. There’s
no war in Iraq, you’re still happy. You work, you’re happy.
You don’t work, you’re happy. You have possessions, you’re
happy. You don’t have possessions, you’re happy. In other
words it makes no difference what the world may seem to
bring to you. You are no longer identifying with the world and
its objects. You’re seeing the world as yourself, or you’re
beginning to, slowly but surely.

Once the I goes back into the Source, even for a few
moments at first, you become joyously happy. You have much
peace and harmony. You feel it immediately. In the beginning
it might not last. But at least you’ve had it for a few moments,
and you were able to prove the truth of what I’m saying. Some
of you have told me you’ve been able to do this for a few
moments, and you felt a joy, a peace, and a bliss, that you
never felt before. You’re beginning to feel your Self, your real
Self. As you continue to do this every day, especially when you
wake up in the morning, those periods will last longer and
longer. They will expand. And you will be able to rest in that
space which is called the fourth state of consciousness, the gap
between sleeping and waking. You will be able to stay there for
longer periods of time, and you will feel what I’m talking

about. Yet, there are some of you who do no practice whatso¬
ever. If you are a bhakti, you really don’t have to. All you’ve
got to do is surrender, totally surrender, which leads to the
same thing. But if you are an aspiring Jnani, and you want to
get it over with, grab hold of your I, follow it to the Source, and
become free totally and completely.

oAbifte in the

It's not necessarily done with effort and intention. It's more
a matter of letting go than a matter of effort, which can only
take you so far.

Yes, true.

Sometimes it’s that intense effort before you let go to realize
how simple it is.

You wonder why you use effort to begin with.

I think it has a valid place. It builds up such intensity that
one can awaken, and then when you awaken, you realize how
simple it is.

But remember for whom the effort is. It is the ego that uses
effort. It’s much better to observe the ego than to resist it. You
observe the ego effortlessly. You simply watch yourself the
way you react to conditions. And see how much you react to
given conditions that affect you. Are you still reacting as you
always did? You notice how quiet your mind is. That your
mind doesn’t move so far any more. It doesn’t go out so far. It
stays still. And everything is happening around you, but not to
you. Again, you become the observer of all of the things of life
going on. You watch but you don’t react.

78 ~

~ 79 ~

tlence the ofteait

Is that what you mean by abiding in the I?

Not really. Abiding in the I is holding on to the I by inquir¬
ing, “To whom does this come? It comes to me. I feel it. Then
who am I?” That’s abiding in the I.

When you ask “Who am I?” then the Silence comes?

The Silence doesn’t come, because the Silence already is.

Your awareness of Silence appears.

You simply become still when you ask, “Who am I?”

Abiding in the I, is that the Silence you abide in?

You abide in the I by asking, “Who am I?” Holding on to
the I is abidance in the I.

I still don’t know what you mean by holding on to the I.

You become aware of the I by asking, “Who am I?” over
and over again. “Who is this 1? Where does it come from? Who
am I? Who am I?”

That sounds more like questioning the I rather than living in
the I.

It’s the same thing. That’s the way you abide in the I, it’s
the only way.

I’d follow the I and it would go somewhere and it would seem
like it would go into the Heart. And once it went there, it
dissolved whatever it was attached to. As I was working with it,
it dissolved, everything dissolved in that place, and that’s when
I thought I was abiding in the I. At that point I followed it, and
it took time. But it seemed like it went into the Heart and then

(^el^-ofn^ukiy

everything dissolved in that place and that’s when I thought I
was abiding in the I. And would that seem like abiding in the
Self? Is there a difference?

How did you abide in the I? How did you follow it?

I asked, let’s see, what did I do? “To whom does this come?”
To me. To I. And I grabbed hold of that I and I followed it, and
there was something to follow. If I do it now, there’s nothing to
follow, but when I was doing it....

What was the thing you followed?

Where is the source of the I? And it was nothing that.. .it
was a sense of following it... it had nothing to do with any¬
thing.

That’s right. You don’t actually follow the I. You pose the
question, “To whom does this come? To I.”

And you quicken to a sense of following it into a space where
everything dissolves in the end.

It happens by itself.

Yes, but for me it was a sense of following, even though there
was no traceable means of following it at all.

^here ofs Only One

What is the difference between abiding in the I and abiding
in the Self?

When you abide in the I you’re abiding in the ego. The I is
really the ego, the small I. It turns into the Self eventually. So
when you abide in the I, you abide in the Self, because there is

~ 80 ~

~81

Silence ofj the (fffteazt

only one I. This small I turns into the Self. Eventually only the
Self exists, but in the beginning it appears like the I. And as
you continue holding on by asking the question, “Who am I?”
it turns into the Self, into I Am.

So it’s pretty clear.

As clear as mud. (laughter)

So Robert, all the questions and all the answers are also part
ofmaya. Maya can never be broken up intellectually.

No.

The only valid thing is to practice, to follow the teaching of
the teacher. The method he advises, and that’s it. Questions,
answers—discussions out of questions.

You’re right. Maya cannot be broken up intellectually,
because it never existed. It doesn’t exist. There is no maya.
Once you realize that, you’re awakened to your true Self.

So, all the instructions, the questioning, the answering, all of
that is part ofmaya too.

It’s all a waste of time. But you have to do something,
(laughter)

Yes, that’s what I mean. Follow the teaching of the teacher as
a practice, follow the practice.

If you do that, you’ll be okay. But the teaching is only to
show you that there are no teachings. You simply awaken. And
then you know you’ve always been awake. There never was a
time when you were not. None of this exists. If you have a
quiet mind, you’re safe. But if your mind is always thinking,

thinking, thinking, looking for new methods, looking for new
teachers, looking for new this, and new books, new this and new
that, then you’ve got a problem. Be still and know that I Am God.

I would have said it another way, Robert. What I’m looking
for, I’m looking with.

What you’re looking for, you’re looking with?

Yes.

Well, if you want to say it, that’s good.

Robert, you said all you have to do is be still, be quiet. But it
seems as though to find that stillness, that quietness, there’s a
battle with the mind.

To whom? To whom does it appear that way?

Well, if you do Self-inquiry, if you’re quiet for a moment,
then the mind comes back up. And then you do a Self-inquiry
again, you’re quiet again, and the mind comes back up.

Okay.

Well, that’s the battle.

This is really no battle, if you ask, “To whom does it come?”

Well, that’s your weapon, (laughter)

So use your weapon to win the battle.

Well, that’s my point, that it is a battle. It’s not so much 'just
be quiet. ” On the one hand it takes that effort, it takes the...

I understand what you mean. But as long as you talkyourself
into a battle, you’re going to have a battle on your hands.

~ 82 ~

83 ~

(^iience ofy the (jpleait

Well, it seems as though if you ignore the battle, you’ll have the
battle. So the battle is inevitable, but you can choose the battlefield.

On the contrary, if you become indifferent and just watch,
your mind will actually slow down by itself. Don’t get involved.
Watch. Be still. And there will be no battle.

Isn’t it part of the illusion that there is some quiet or Silence
that one’s going to attain?

Quiet and Silence are your real nature.

Yes, but no it’s not...

Silence and quiet...

I mean, I understand what you’re saying and I agree, but it
still has nothing to do with quiet and Silence.

That’s because you’re making noises right now. (laughter)
You refuse to keep silent.

It’s true; that’s what I feel about you too, Robert.

I’m not really talking.

Well, if you were to witness and that becomes effortless and
the mind becomes quiet, that’s very understandable. But if
you’re doing vichara, that is like an effort.

Vichara is really done to quiet the mind, and if you look at it
as an effort it becomes an effort. Try not to have any thoughts
for or against. Just do it in a peaceful way, and watch what
happens. But don’t tell yourself it’s a battle, it’s an effort, or it’s
hard. Make it simple. Observe, watch, ask in a simple way, and
everything will take care of itself.

It depends on your maturity. Everybody is different. I’m
not saying you shouldn’t involve yourself in the world; just do

not react in anything you do. Simply observe yourself and the
things that you react to, and try to keep away from the things
that you react to. Make your life simple and comfortable.

And do plenty of Silence.

If you don’t react to conditioning, then you’re always in the
Silence. You can be in the market place, you can be anywhere,
if you don’t react, you’re always in the Silence. You can also be
in a cave, but if you have not learned to control your mind,
your mind will drive you crazy, do all kinds of thoughts.
Therefore it makes no difference where you are. It’s how you
react where you are that counts.

84

~85

<'^'phitual <£Practice

(Sadhana)

Everyone here is Absolute Reality, Pure Awareness.
This is your real nature.

Right now, not some time in the future.

Not when you get enlightened.

Not when you search for the answers.

But right this minute. This is what you are.

Why will you not accept it?

When you think about yourself do you think
you re a puny human

that has to struggle for existence and fightfor survival?
As long as you believe this, that's the way it's going
to be for you.

But as soon as you accept the truth about yourself,
that you are a delight, Divine Sat-Chit-Ananda,
You will be free.

You simply have to accept this.

There are no rituals you have to go through.
There are no prayers you have to chant.

You simply have to awaken to your true nature,
Pure Awareness,

Nirvana,

Bliss,

Consciousness.

This is what you are right at this moment.

87 ~

Silence of the (jpteacl
^he (beginning of) QfJisBom

There is a story about a Jnani who was sitting on the edge
of the road, with his eyes dosed and his head on his knees,
immersed in the Divine. A young boy walked up to him and
said, “Master, can I be your disciple? Can you teach me? And
the Jnani said, “I have no disciples and I give no teaching. But
I will allow you to sit next to me for the day.” The young man
sat down and observed.

All day long people from various beliefs, religions, came to
the Jnani, asked him questions, wanted boons, wanted
healings, wanted different magical tricks to be performed. A
lady came to have her daughter married. She wanted the
Jnani’s blessing so she could find a husband. Another came to
be prosperous in his work. And this went on all day. The Jnani
never opened his eyes, nor did he answer. He said absolutely
nothing. At about four o’clock, a beggar came over with a
bundle on his shoulders, he was disheveled, rags. He went over
to both of them and asked, “Can you please show me the way
to town?” And the Jnani opened his eyes, smiled, jumped up
and said, “Certainly, follow me.” He took him a quarter of the
way, held his baggage for him, and pointed the road to town,
and went back and sat down.

The young fellow was beside himself. He asked the Jnani,
“I do not understand, Master, what you did. All these people
came to you, lawyers, judges, various people from different
religions, asking you profound questions, and you would not
answer them. But the beggar made you smile and open your
eyes, and you showed him the way. Can you please explain
this?” The Jnani said, “The beggar is the only honest man we
had come today. He knew what he wanted, and he had his

(s^mvitual (£Ptactice

way.” What this means is, most people are hypocrites. They
want teachings for their own benefit. They’re not thinking of
the Absolute. They’re thinking of what the teaching can do for
them materially. They want to remove a problem, change their
lifestyle, gain material wealth, rid themselves of sickness, and
so on.

Now these were all legitimate desires, but they have
absolutely nothing to do with Self-realization. Self-realization
is your true nature. It is what you are. It has absolutely
nothing to do with your body. It has nothing to do with your
mind. It has nothing to do with your affairs. So the one who is
Self-realized is not the body. The body can never become Self-
realized. The mind can never know enlightenment. People still
believe, no matter how many times I say this, that it is the
mind that becomes enlightened, the body rises in conscious¬
ness and becomes liberated. Nothing can be further from the
truth. You are not the body. You have no body. You have no
mind.

With all the religions and all of our spiritual practices, we
say we want to become this, we want to become that. We want
peace of mind. We want riches. We want all of these things.
But what we really want is Absolute Freedom. The ultimate
reality is Pure Awareness, Absolute Reality.

This is a goal that is someplace within us, and we don’t
know it. We’re carrying it around. The ultimate reality is part
of us already. But yet we go through all kinds of practices,
meditations, sadhanas, trying to awaken the kundalini. Doing
all kinds of tantric exercises, learning the Qabbalah, practicing
Taoism, doing all these things that are completely unnecessary
and ridiculous. They’re all a waste of time. But then again,
they’re not a waste of time. They’re not a waste of time

~88

~89

Silence ajj the (<p£eatt

because if you didn’t do them, you wouldn’t be here, and you
wouldn’t be in a class that teaches Advaita Vedanta. You
wouldn’t be seeking complete freedom.

Everything you’ve done has led you to this. Yet, it is all a
bunch of nonsense. How can they both be correct? How can it
be necessary and also be a bunch of nonsense? As long as you
refuse to awaken, and you refuse to see yourself as no body,
you’re going to go through all these rituals and all these
experiences. And practice all these teachings and memorize
the Bible and the Sutras and everything else. You’re to go
through all kinds of teachings again and again and again and
again, perhaps for many many lives. Until you awaken to the
fact that it is not the teaching that’s going to awaken me,
really. It is no person, place, or thing that can ever awaken me
and free me from bondage to myself, from bondage to maya,
to the universe, to the world.

And this is the beginning of wisdom, when you realize this.
Again, when you realize that all the teachings in the world, all
the spiritual practices in the world, all the yoga practices, all
the disciplines that you’ve been doing, are not going to awaken
you one iota. You’ve been wasting your time. There is nothing
that can awaken you.

You’re waiting for me to tell you what will awaken you.
There is no thing that can ever awaken you. If the thing
awakens you, it would not be awakening. If you rely on
something to wake you up, it would not be a real awakening.
What happens is you simply begin to see. You become Pure
Being. But nothing made it happen. Do not think that all the
hard work you’ve been doing will make you awaken faster. I’m
telling you these great truths for your own benefit, because
most of you have been here for a long time. All of the things in

90

hactice

this world will not awaken you. There is nothing that can
awaken you, for you rely on some thing. And all the things
simply pull you deeper and deeper into maya.

^fghete qPs One to <3$>waken

You and I know many people who have been practicing
spiritual disciplines for many years. They can recite the Bible
backwards and forwards. They memorize beautiful stanzas
and spiritual books. They’re good debaters on points of
Advaita Vedanta, or other teachings. They’ve been around the
world to many teachers, many places. They’re still the same as
they always were. All they’ve done is add on to their ignorance.
They keep adding and adding and adding all of the different
teachings. They’re filling themselves up with teachings. This
will never awaken you. It’s when you empty yourself out
totally and completely, when there is nobody left to learn
anything, that’s when you simply see yourself as no body. You
look at yourself and you realize what you are. But no thing can
make this happen to you.

Therefore, what is the attitude to take? No attitude. What
should you do? Nothing. What should you study? What should
you learn? Nothing. Where should you go? Nowhere. With
whom should you associate? No one. When you can get to this
place, you are already awakened. For there was never anyone
who had to be awakened. There was never anyone who had to
practice spiritual teachings. There was never anyone who had
a body. There was never anyone who existed. I know to some
of you this sounds very strange, yet it is the truth. It is the
whole truth and nothing but the truth. The only way you’re
ever going to learn this is by not learning anything. By keeping

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oSitence ofy the (ppteatt

silent. Look how your mind is thinking right now. Some of you
are saying to yourselves that guy is crazy. And you’re right.
Some of you are already thinking about lunch tomorrow,
clothes you’re going to wear, going to work, your mind
immediately starts to think. The lesson you have to learn is
how to stop thinking. And no one can teach you this, really.
Because there are no teachings that can adequately stop you
from thinking. You have to want it yourself.

In other words, instead of looking to me—I’m not a
teacher, and a person who is going to give you a sacred
mantra, or a person who is going to tell you a certain secret so
you can awake—forget this. Turn within. See the truth.
Become the truth. Do not look to others for advice, what to do,
how to live. Be a lamp unto yourself as the Buddha said. All the
answers are within you. Some of you are saying, “What about
you Robert, can’t we come to you for advice?” I am a guide, a
mirror for you to see yourself. Look at me as a mirror for you,
that’s all. See me as a mirror for yourself. I can only see you as
one way, perfection, Consciousness. I see you as myself. When
you look at me, you’re looking into the mirror. What do you
see? You’re seeing yourself. How are you seeing yourself? As
depraved, homely, sickly, as an ego maniac? Drop it. Awaken.
When you look at me you see Silence, if you’re looking in the
mirror correctly. There is no mind, there is no movement,
there is no body, there is no one home. Then you see yourself.
And you are just That.

Remember you haven’t awakened to it, for there is no one
to awaken. Always remember this. Many books, many
teachings tell you, you have to awaken. Who has to awaken?
There never was anyone asleep. There has to be someone
asleep who is awakening. Yet, where you are coming from, you

< 3 tyiritual <£Practice

believe you are asleep. You believe you need a teaching. You
believe someone has to touch you or give you a mantra, or do
something to you. You always want something. You always
think you have to get something from the outside. The outside
is a total illusion, just as you are. Therefore the only thing you
can get from the outside is total nonsense, foolishness, maya.
That’s all anybody is going to give you. You have to listen to
these words and act accordingly. Just BE. Do not be this or
that. Do not think of just being. Just BE.

Forget about your dreams, your goals, your ambitions,
your future, your past. These are all illusions. If you want to
look to your future, or to your goals, then the ultimate goal
you’re striving for is death. For that’s where everybody
appears to end. This is where your goals get you. This is where
your future is, in the grave. This is where everybody appears
to wind up.

Therefore the wise ones begin to know themselves as
Absolute Reality before another day passes. They no longer
keep thinking what am I going to do when I leave this meeting.
I’m going to go and see a movie, I’m going to go out to dinner,
I’m going home and watch a TV program, I’m going to go
home and listen to records. Instead, the wise person thinks, I
have nowhere to go, and I have nothing to do. Yet, you will do
some things that you have to do. You will still go to a movie.
You will still watch TV perhaps, if you want to. You will eat
dinner. But you will realize you’re doing nothing. Again this is
a great paradox. How can you do something and yet at the
same time be doing nothing? But this is exactly what is
happening. Your body will appear to go through the motions
and do all sorts of things, but you are doing nothing. When I
speak of things like this, the finite mind cannot comprehend

~ 92 ~

~ 93 ~

< 2 ^Htence <Af the (spleart

this. The finite mind wants to fight, argue, stick up for its
rights. And many people forget about this kind of a teaching
and go about their business. And they say, “Well, let whatever
happens, happen.” It is only very few people that can grasp
what I’m talking about.

Everybody is ultimately going to come this way. Everybody
is going to awaken one day. And yet as long as you are en¬
grossed in the body the way you are, and in a world of persons,
places, and things, you will appear to come back life after life
after life after life after life. Until you come to the conclusion
I’ve come to. We are all hell bound for heaven, so to speak.
Everyone is going to get to this place, whether we like it or not.

You may ask if this is our true nature, nothing, no one,
how did I get here in the first place? And this is a good ques¬
tion. Who asked the question? I did. So I’ll answer it. Nothing
is happening. You never got here. There is no here to get. It’s
like hypnosis. Many of you have seen people hypnotized. And
in the hypnosis they seem to be seeing certain things that the
hypnotist tells them. Yet these things do not exist. So it is with
this world and your appearance in it. You appear to be here
because you’re hypnotized. You have certain thoughts, certain
feelings, certain emotions, because you’re hypnotized. You
feel you want to become Self-realized, liberated, because
you’re hypnotized. Everything you feel or do or act is hypno¬
sis. You are not the one who is acting or doing or being. You
are beyond all this. You are boundless space, Nirvana. Sat-
Chit-Ananda. You are not what you think you are. You are
eternal happiness, unalloyed peace, joy. This is your real
nature. You are the substratum of all existence, the underlying
current out of which all things come. Yet you are not those
things that appear to be coming from you.

94

vintual <£Ptactice

^hete thing to Search fjot

Y ou can tell if you’re getting closer to this by the peace that
overwhelms you—the happiness that takes you over. It is not
a happiness because there is a thing happening in your life
that you feel. It is not a happiness of something that you own
that you did not own before. It is not a peace because you’re in
the right environment and you feel peaceful. It is a peace and
happiness that is always with you. You are that peace. You are
that happiness. It is always there. It never leaves you. As long
as you believe you’re a body, it is virtually impossible to have
this peace and have this happiness. You cannot, for a body is
part of the world conditioning. Therefore, you have to search
for peace. You have to search for happiness. You believe that
if you do this, you’ll be happy. If you do this you will become
peaceful. And when you do this and you do that, the happiness
and peace, how long will it last? For a short while. Things
change. Environments change. Conditions change. Your
family changes. Everything changes. Therefore, again, it is
virtually impossible to have real peace and real happiness as
long as you believe you are a body. Consequently, we do not go
searching for peace and happiness. This is a mistake. What we
do, is become our real Self by not trying to become our real
Self.

All this begins by quieting the mind. By not allowing the
mind to react to conditions and situations. I’m not only
speaking of negative conditions and situations, I’m speaking
of everything that arises in the mind. When you wake up in
the morning and you see the beautiful trees, sun up, the
mountains, the flowers, birds, this also is a false image. It is
not the truth about you. You’re not trying to exchange bad for

95

(sffilence ofj the (zpteatt

good. For the singing bird that you listen to will only last a
fortnight. How long is a fortnight? Two weeks. That’s enough.
All the trees you see will die in the winter time, or change in
the winter time. Everything you see changes. The beautiful
flowers you pick for your morning breakfast table die within
twenty-four hours, or less. They’re no longer beautiful
flowers. What I’m trying to show you is, you cannot depend
on anything in this world for your happiness or your peace.
It’s a false premise. Things in this world only make you
happy temporarily. When you come to the realization that
you’re not the body—and sometime you come to the
realization that there is no world—there is no universe, there
is no God. There is only That, which is indescribable.

You have to be very honest with yourself. Do I really want
to become free? Am I really looking to awaken, to be liber¬
ated? What am I doing about it? Be honest with yourself,
(laughter from kids nearby) Listen to those kids having a
birthday party. Whatever they’re doing, they’re so happy. Yet
at the end of the party they have to go home. They have to go
to school tomorrow, or they have chores to do, and then they
have to do things they don’t like. Soon their minds start
thinking about partying again. They make more parties. And
they keep this up until they grow up. It never stops. Party
after party after party. They become party animals, searching
for happiness, searching for peace. Searching for everlasting
joy. Yet, they do not understand that nothing outside can
give you this. Nothing!

You have to jump within yourself. You have to learn to sit
in the Silence, to quiet the mind. And it will come by itself.
You do not have to pray for it or practice sadhanas, or, as I
said before, do certain rituals or read certain books. You

^jr/ritual (£Pmctice

simpy have to sit, quiet the mind by observing it, inquire,
“To whom do the thoughts come?”

Be still, and know that I Am God.

(^Meditation and (S^el'fj-Qfnquity

Does meditation serve a purpose in the spiritual quest?

For the beginner it quiets the mind to an extent, and it
makes you one-pointed. It makes the mind one-pointed so
that you can concentrate on one thing at a time. It does help.
But as you advance, it actually becomes a hindrance. For on
whom are you meditating? To meditate you have to have an
object and a subject. You are the subject meditating on an
object. But in truth, in reality, there is no subject and there is
no object. There is only the one Self, there is only Brahman.
Therefore, you have to ask yourself the question: “Does
Brahman have to meditate? Does God have to meditate?”

Does not meditation benefit us? The Lord Arjuna himself is
shown in meditation.

For the person who believes they are separate from God,
yes. If you believe you are separate, that Brahman is up in the
sky or someplace else, that God is someplace else, that Shiva
is someplace else, Krishna is someplace else, then, yes you
have to meditate on these Deities. But when you remember
that You Are That, Tat Tvam Asi, who is to meditate on
whom? You have become Krishna yourself. You are Shiva, you
are Brahman, you are That. All you have to do is to be aware
of the Truth. But again, if you believe you are separate, then by
all means, you have to meditate. This is why Jnana Marga
teaches: There Is Only the One and I Am That.

~ 96 ~

~ 97 ~

^Silence ofj the (<pteatt

hactice

There never was two of you. There never was God and you.
But as long as you believe this, or perhaps nobody told you
this before, then you have to meditate. You have to pray. You
have to do all the rituals. You have to perform puja, and sing
bhajans and kirtans. All these things are necessary when you
believe you’re separate from God. So, why not start from the
top?

It’s the Unmanifest that manifests the One. Is that correct?

Yes, same thing. I and my Father are one. If you have seen
me, you have seen my Father. Same thing.

Sitting in the Silence is different from meditation?

Yes.

Like sitting in the chair with your eyes open looking out at
your garden? Sitting with your eyes closed without an object,
sitting there?

It doesn’t make any difference.

Asking, who am I, and so on?

Of course you can always practice Atma Vichara, inquire,
“Who am I?” And as soon as thoughts enter your mind
inquire, “To whom do these thoughts come?” Realize the “I”
is not you. And you look for the Source of the “I,” which is in
your heart.

But then the Source of the I will be slow to gradually start to
remember that, like there is something lost and it comes back to
us.

You can say that, yes. The “I” becomes the real I.

But as you remember it more and more, you’re more aware
of it, you remember it for longer times. And you forget every¬
thing else.

Yes.

In the meditations, when you sit down to meditate, do you
try to stop the thoughts, or do you try to dismiss the thoughts?

Never try to stop the thoughts. If you try to stop the
thoughts, they will become bigger and greater, and they will
win. Because the mind appears to be very powerful. Yet in
reality, the mind does not exist. There is no mind. There is no
such thing as a mind. So when you sit in the Silence, you
observe, you watch, you become the witness, you can do many
things. You can watch your breath by practicing vipassana
meditation, watch the feelings in your body, observe the
breathing. Yet the better way is to still inquire, “Who am I?”
You never answer that question. You just ask the question and
keep still. When you keep still, thoughts will come into your
mind. Simply inquire, “To whom do these thoughts come?
They come to me. I think these thoughts. Then who am I?”
Who am I simply means, what is the Source of the I? From
whence does the I arise? You follow the I back to the Source,
which is the Heart center. And one day, the I will disappear,
and you will be totally liberated.

It is the “I” that makes you human. Everything in this
universe is attached to the “I.” Do you not say I feel this and I
feel that? And I am this and I am that? All day long you’re
using your “I.” All day long you’re saying I am this and I am
happy, I am sad, I am sick, I am well, I am tired, I am every¬
thing. But when you practice Atma Vichara, you become
aware of this, totally aware that you’re always saying I am this

~ 98 ~

~99

Silence (rfj the (spleact

and I am that. And you question this by asking,“ W ell, who am
I? Who is this I? Who gave it birth? From whence did it arise?”
Just by asking this question, you will find peace.

In the past, sages such as Ramana Maharshi, Shankara, and
others, have said that Self-inquiry is for mature persons. You
have to be mature spiritually to understand Self-inquiry, to
understand Advaita Vedanta. When I say to you that you are
nothing, everything is nothing, and you get to nothing, people
still believe that I am good for nothing. But I’m paying you a
compliment when I tell you, you’re good for nothing. This
really means that you are good for no thing that the senses can
perceive. Everything the senses perceive is false. No thing
appears as it appears. Everything is a mirage, a dream. It’s not
what you think it is. So to be no thing is a great blessing. To be
good for nothing is a greater blessing. Know who you are.
Understand your true nature. Practice Self-inquiry. Be
yourself. Awaken to your true Self. Yet most people cannot do
this because they’re so involved in the world, that this maya
keeps them from seeking themselves as God, as Absolute
Reality. And it is difficult for most people to do this. There has
to be a way for the average person to come up to the point
where they can practice Self-inquiry.

We’ll talk a little bit about this. Most people usually call me
and ask me how to alleviate their problems. How do I get rid
of a bad marriage? How do I find another job? How do I
remove illness from our life? How do I become a millionaire?
And so forth and so on. What I usually say is, “Do not think of
your problems, but think of God.” Now, I’m not speaking of
the God up in the sky. I’m not speaking of an anthropomor¬
phic Deity. I’m speaking of Pure Reality, of Consciousness.
When I mention God, I mean Absolute Intelligence. Think of

< 2 ^'pititual <£Practice

God whenever your problem comes along, or maybe you feel
despondent. Maybe you feel out of sorts, or maybe you feel
something is wrong. Think of God. “How do I do this?” you
ask. “How can I think of God?” What we call God is invisible.
Absolute Reality has no form and no shape. How can I think
of God? I’ve gone over this once before. Who can tell me? How
does one think of God? How does one meditate on God? I’ll
give you a hint. What is the first name of God?

I Am

Exactly. I Am is the first name of God. When you want to
think of God, you think of I Am with your respiration. I Am is
the first name of God. Close your eyes and try. Inhale and say,
“I.” Exhale and say, “am.” Inhale say, “I,” exhale say, “am.”
Doesn’t that make you feel good? Just by saying I Am to
yourself, it lifts you up. So the thing to do is this: Whenever
you have a problem, I don’t care what it is, I don’t care how
serious you think it is, whether it’s personal or worldly,
wherever it came from, the secret is to forget yourself. For the
moment, forget about the problem for as long as you can, and
do the I Am meditation. Every time the problem comes back
to you, do the I Am meditation. If your mind wanders, bring
it back again and do the I Am meditation.

When I explain this to some people they say, “Robert, but
you tell us we have to get rid of our minds. We have to annihi¬
late the mind, not think with it.” This is true. This is the
highest truth. But yet most people cannot do this. Remember
Advaita Vedanta is really for mature souls. People who have
practiced sadhana in previous lives. It’s like going to school.
Self-inquiry, Advaita Vedanta, is like the university of spiritual
life. You cannot fool yourself.

100

~ 101 ~

<^>ilence of the (<pCeazt

There are so many people who try to practice Self-inquiry
and they give it up. Then I tell them to surrender, surrender
completely. That’s the other way. Again this becomes difficult.
They try it for awhile and they always revert back to them¬
selves, your personal self. So I give them the I Am meditation.
Everybody can do that. When nothing seems to work, go back
to the I Am. It’s really very powerful. Do not take it simple. I
can guarantee you this. If you can practice I Am for one day,
just one day, all of your troubles will be transcended. You will
feel happiness you’ve never felt before. You will feel a peace
that you never even knew existed. As you keep practicing I
Am, your thoughts will become less and less. Your personal
self will go into the background and you will begin to feel an
inner Bliss. You will begin to feel that it no longer matters
what I’m going through. It makes no difference, because it is
God who is going through this, not me. And God has no
problems. You automatically become happy, just by using the
I Am meditation.

In the Bhagavad Gita it says, “Out of a million people, one
searches for God. And out of a million people who search, one
finds Him.” It’s sort of difficult. That’s how it appears. But if
you begin to use I Am as a meditation and you allow the I Am
to go deeper and deeper, your bodily consciousness will
disappear, and I Am will take over.

If you want to mix Self-inquiry, Atma Vichara, with I Am,
that’s permissible. You can use them both together. I’ll explain
how. Say you’re using the I Am meditation. In between,
thoughts keep popping up. Whether they’re good thoughts or
bad thoughts makes no difference, but thoughts keep interfer¬
ing. You can now inquire, “To whom come these thoughts?”
and you don’t have to go any further. Just observe and watch.

ual ^Practice

When your mind becomes silent again, you go back to the I Am
meditation with your respiration. When thoughts come again
you inquire, “To whom do they come?” As you progress in this
method, you complete the question. “The thoughts come to me.
What is the Source of me? Who am I? What is the Source of I?”
You begin to feel and see that the I that seems to have the
problem is not you. You begin to feel, “I” have a problem. “I”
am sick. “I” am angry. “I” have no peace of mind. And you
begin to laugh. For the realization tells you, “I” has all these
things, I don’t. “I” is the culprit. “I” appears to want this and
need that. So it is with desires, wants, self-aggrandizement. All of
this belongs to the “I.” Who is this I? Where does it come from?
If the “I” isn’t really me, then who am I? And you keep still.

Now you may go back to I Am with the respiration. You
inhale and you say I. You exhale and you say Am. As you
progress this way, you’re going to find something interesting
happening to your life. You’re going to find there’s more and
more space between I Am. It will happen by itself. You will
inhale and you will say I, and all of a sudden nothing will come
out of that. Then you will exhale with Am. You will inhale
again and say I. Remember you’re not putting this on, you’re
not making it happen. It’s happening all by itself. And the
space between I Am is the fourth dimension of Consciousness.
After waking, sleeping, dreaming. It is the state of the Jnani. It
is your freedom. It is Pure Awareness. Pure Awareness is not
the I Am. The I Am leads to Pure Awareness. And when you
keep practicing, “Who am I?” alternating with both of them,
there will be a greater space before you say, “Who am I?”
again. That space is Bliss. You’ll feel something you’ve never
felt before. An inner joy, an inner delight. You will just know
that the whole universe is the Self, and I Am That. As the

~ 102 —

103 -

Alienee (fj the (fffteart

months progress, the words will become less and less. You
may start off with I Am, and then you will be in the Silence.
You will not say another word. You will just experience the
Silence. That Silence is Nirvana, Emptiness. It is no thing. It is
the nothing I was talking about. You will just sit in the Silence.

(^Nature ofj (B^iind

Does the mind exist in the real world?

It appears to exist. It’s an appearance.

But it’s not there?

There really is no mind.

It's just a belief?

The mind is a belief. It is really your thoughts. All of your
thoughts are the mind. Your thoughts come from out of the
mind. It is really the thoughts that you have to get rid of, to
remove from yourself. So the mind is a conglomeration of
thoughts. Thoughts about the past and worries about the
future. This is all the mind is. When you really understand the
nature of the mind, the mind will disappear. The mind is like
a rainbow. The rainbow seems to be real, but when you get
close to it, it doesn’t exist. It’s an optical illusion. Such is the
mind. The mind is the same thing. The mind makes you
believe you are a body, and that you have to go through experi¬
ences with your body. And the mind continues to fool you by
making you believe there’s karma, and reincarnation, and
samskaras, and a whole mess of things that you have to get rid
of. But when you inquire, “To whom does the mind come?”
the mind will flee, it will run away, and you’ll be free.

Spiritual (£Pmctice

Robert, when you were referring to the mind in that ques¬
tion, what about things like, say, cooking and electronics, or
driving your car on the freeway. Those things enter the mind.

When the mind is gone, then those things are spontaneous.
What we call the Self, Consciousness, motivates you. You will
do all those things spontaneously. All the things that you have
to do will be done. But it will no longer be the mind doing this.
It will be Consciousness, the Self.

So, those things and the mind are different things?

The mind is really Consciousness, but appears to be the
mind like a dream. When you give up the mind, only Con¬
sciousness exists. And then you’ll be motivated, guided by
Consciousness.

So what would you call these practical things? That they’re
not mind, that they are just objects out on their own, inanimate
objects?

What you call practical things is also like your body. As
long as you believe you’re a body, then there will be practical
things for you to take care of. But when you realize that you’re
not the body, you’re not the mind, then there no longer will be
practical things for you to take care of. Yet you will appear to
be taking care of them. They’ll be taken care of better than you
could ever do before. At the same time you will know beyond
a shadow of a doubt, that it’s not you that is the doer. You’re
not the doer. Yet everything will be done.

I don’t understand how bhakti and puja and things of that
sort perpetuate duality. But it also feels to me sometimes that
Self-inquiry itself does the same thing. Sort ofpresupposes the

— 104 —

105 ~

(salience ojj the (spteacl

questioner and that which is being questioned. And sometimes
when I try to practice Self-inquiry, it actually feels annoying.
Like I’m being mental when I prefer just to be silent.

Then by all means, you should be silent. Self-inquiry is
good for many people. And there are many people who cannot
do this. So by all means do whatever you have to do. Keep
silent. Keep still. All roads lead to the same goal. All roads lead
to the summit. Therefore, do whatever you have to do to
become free and liberated.

Robert, whenyou talk about the Silence,you’re talkingabout
the mind being silent, right?

When I’m talking about becoming completely silent, the
mind cannot be silent by itself. The mind is a conglomeration
of thoughts. When you become silent, the mind slows down,
until it finally disappears into the Magnificence from which it
came. You can’t really make the mind silent.

Thoughts, right?

There’s only Silence, pure Silence.

The absence of thoughts?

Yes, you could say that. If you try to make the mind silent,
you have a hard time, because the mind doesn’t even exist.
Therefore, what are you trying to make silent? You just want
to be silent. The mind will take care of itself. What appears to
be the mind will disappear of its own volition when you
become silent, because it never existed. When you become
quiet, quiescent, everything takes care of itself. The true Self
emerges with all its splendor and beauty. And everything else
that appeared will disappear. So it’s a misnomer to say, “I’m

Spiritual <£Pmctice

going to kill the mind to make the mind silent.” There never
was a mind to make silent. Again, you just want to be silent.
Forget about the mind. And if you become really silent, you’ll
see you never had a mind to begin with. You’ll be of no mind.
You’ll be out of your mind!

Usually when people say to be silent, it refers to speech, but
you’re talkingabout much more than just talking or not talking.

Yes. What people are talking about is quieting their mind.
I’m not talking about that at all. We’re not trying to quiet the
mind. We’re trying to reach an inner silence which is Brah¬
man. Another name for this silence is Brahman, or Absolute
Reality. This is true Silence.

May you be in Silence the rest of your life and forever!

Robert, what are the most common pitfalls or tricks of the
mind when someone is doing Self-inquiry?

Well, the main one is the mind will make you think it’s real.
It will tell you after a while, “Why are you wasting your time
doing this? You could be busy doing something else, getting
drunk, going to a movie, watching TV, going bowling. Why do
you waste your time with Self-inquiry?” And then it will also
tell you, “Look how much time has elapsed. And nothing has
happened to you yet. Give it up. Go back to your old way of
life.” Your mind is not your friend. It will bring up all kinds of
things. It’ll start by bringing up fears, even fears of the past,
fears of past lives, and you will wonder what’s going on. You
will see black spaces in your meditation sometime, and you
will be frightened. You may see all kinds of negative condi¬
tions taking place in your mind, and you will be encouraged to
stop asking for a while. Always remember, most people have

~ 106 ~

~ 107 —

(salience ofi the (pfteati

gone through this, and the way to succeed is to keep inquiring,
“To whom does this come? Who sees this? Who is going
through this?” It’s always the I. Abide in the I and become free.

So, if you find your self in the void, or blackness, as you said,
then you inquire to whom this void comes?

Yes, and bear in mind that there is nothing that can hurt
you. There are no devils, no demons, no anti-Christs. All of
that is mental. And by inquiring, “To whom does it come?”
they disappear.

Why does the mind seem to always go to the negative?

Because the mind is trying to save itself from annihilation.
It doesn’t want to be destroyed. Therefore it will scare you. It
will cook up all kinds of schemes so that you will forget about
Self-realization. After all, who wants to be destroyed? The
mind wants to continue its nonsense. Therefore it sometimes
brings up all kinds of negatives, to frighten you so you’ll give
up the practice. Sometimes it may show you wonderful things
also. It will tell you, “You don’t need this. Look what you’ve
got! You’ve got all these beautiful people around you, and
you’ve got everything you want out of life. This teaching is
only for negative people.” Your mind will do anything. It will
play all kinds of games with you. Keep up the Self-inquiry.

04}ho oPmctices czfiadhana?

The only way you can become totally free is when you
surrender yourself totally, when you give yourself up com¬
pletely. When you begin to leave the world alone totally and
completely, when you stop reacting to person, place, or thing,

(pfjjizituai ppractirc

and you start working on yourself, you begin to do some sort
of sadhana, spiritual practice. You become very interested in
spirituality. You’re not doing it for any reason. You’re doing
it because you feel that you want to do it. You may begin by
practicing hatha yoga, learning all sorts of postures, asanas.
Then, perhaps after a few years, you become tired of bending
yourself into a pretzel, and you begin the practice of raja yoga,
mind control, ashtanga yoga, the eightfold path, prayanama
breathing exercises. Makes no difference what religion you
are, you start to search for the mysticism in religion. If you’re
aJew.youstarttoreadtheQabbalah. If you’re a Christian, you
start to read Christian mysticism. If you’re Islamic you start to
read the Sufi material. It all leads to the same goal.

If you’re intense, sincere, you will reach a point that no
matter what religion you’re in you ask yourself, “Who is the
one who is going through all this?” You finally get to the place
where you can practice Self-inquiry. “Who is the one who has
been doing all these things?” You start to introspect yourself.
You start to think, “All of these years I have been practicing all
these different methods. But who’s been practicing? Who’s
been doing all this?” And one day something tells you, “I have.
I have been practicing. I have been doing all these things.”
Something tells you to go searching for this I. What is this
elusive I that has been practicing all these things for all these
years, trying to perfect my body, my self, my personal self?
And you start to be quiet. You begin to enjoy the Silence. You
begin to sit for long periods in the quietness, and you search
for the I by inquiring, “To whom does this I come? Where does
this I come from? Who am I? What is the truth about myself?”

You begin to realize, as long as you are involved in doing
things, then you are the doer. But if the I is removed everything

- 108 -

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Silence of^ the (^teazt

will be done by itself. You begin to understand this, and you
follow the I to its Source, which is the spiritual Heart, which is
Consciousness.

Forget about those things. Don’t even desire them. Just do
the work and you’ll be surprised. The more you want it, the
more it eludes you. And that’s natural, because you’re chasing
after yourself. You’re trying to catch yourself, when you’re
already caught. So the more you chase yourself, the faster you
are going to run away from yourself. Stop doing that. It’s
simplicity itself.

There is really nothing intellectual about it. You don’t have
to know certain words or certain phraseologies. You don’t
have to memorize certain text. You simply have to remember
the I. Abide in the I. That’s all you have to do. Abide in the I.
Hold on to the I. Everything is attached to the I. Your body, the
world, the universe. When you discover the source of I,
everything else will go with it into the ocean of Bliss. Bliss is a
natural outcome of your search. When you stop searching and
you calm down and you put your books away, and you
confront yourself and see what you are all about, that will
bring about bliss faster than anything else than you can ever
imagine or ever do. It’s not in chanting mantras. It’s not in
being a good guy or a bad guy. It’s not by doing penance. It’s
simply by observing your I. Abiding in the I. “Where did I come
from?” When you say that, you’re not saying where did my
body come from. You’re saying where did “I” come from. I.

I is separate from your body. Your body is attached to I.
The I is not your body. I is separate from the world, but the
world is attached to I. God is separate from the world, but God
is attached to I. Therefore, when you ask, “Where did I come
from,” something happens to your mind. Your mind becomes

< 3 ^pkitual (^Practice

weaker and weaker. And when your mind becomes weaker
and weaker, the I begins to expand and becomes all pervading.
Then the I becomes another word for the Self, and you begin
to realize I is none other than the Self. I Am That. You become
free.

It isn’t hard and it isn’t easy. It just is. Think about yourself
for a moment. Watch what thoughts come to you when you
think about yourself. Some of you are saying, “I’m hungry.”
Some of you are thinking of your needs. As soon as you think
about yourself, you think about your body. But your Self is not
your body. Your body is only a heap of rotten flesh, but that’s
not you. You are 1.1 Am. I am not this and not that. I Am. I
Am. There’s nothing else, nothing else exists but I Am. There’s
nothing to say about it. There are no speeches to make about
I Am. There is only I Am. When you say I Am to yourself, what
happens? Isn’t there a quietness that comes over you, a
stillness, because another name for I Am is Silence.

Now you see what I mean when I’ve told you all these
times, you follow the I to the Heart. As you follow the I to the
Heart you’re going through the molecules, and the atoms, and
the sub-atomic particles, going deeper and deeper, back to
your Source. Back, back, to the Source, to the energy waves, to
the void, and finally your entire body is totally dissolved and
Consciousness stands alone. When I say Consciousness stands
alone, I do not mean that Consciousness is something else
from yourself. You have not died, you are just the way you
were always. You’re the same person, except something
wonderful has happened to you. You realize with all your
heart, with all your soul, with all your being, that you never
were the body or the mind. You were never an ego. You have
always been Consciousness. You are filled with Bliss. You now

-110

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< 3 Silence off the (<pteait

understand what the word Sat-Chit-Ananda means. I Am That
I Am, Ultimate Oneness, Absolute Reality, Nirvana, they’re all
synonymous with Consciousness. You have overcome. You are
free!

Nothing in this world will ever disturb you again. You laugh
at death, for you have realized that you were never born. You
have never prevailed as a body, and never die. You’re always
the same, Pure Consciousness. It makes no difference whether
you possess a body or have no body. It’s all the same to you.
Others may look at you and they see your old self. Your family,
your friends, see you as they did before, but you are not what
you were before. You are Total Happiness. You are the
Universe. You understand that all of this is the Self and I Am
That.

Q "Progress on the <£Path

A question I’m commonly asked over the telephone or in
person is this: “Robert, how do you see the world?” How am I
supposed to see the world? Someone tells me, “I know you see
Consciousness, you don’t see us.” If I didn’t see you, I would¬
n’t be able to function. Of course I see you. Someone else tells
me, “You see bright lights and sacred images.” Again, if I see
bright lights and sacred images, I’d get run over by a truck. I
see exactly what you see. Nothing. The only difference is this:
I look at the world and I laugh, for I realize I don’t know or I
don’t think.

I realize that the world is none other than myself. The world
is Consciousness. It is not the world as it appears, but it’s still
a superimposition. Therefore a sage sees the world but realizes
the world is Brahman, and is only an appearance. Whereas

(Spiritual (£Pzactice

most people look at the world and they identify with the world.
Therefore they have fears, frustrations, pains, arguments,
wars, man’s inhumanity to man. Only because they identify
with the world.

A good example of this is the example we always talk about.
The snake and the rope. That’s unconditioned superimposi¬
tion. Where you see the snake and you become frightened
because the light is dim. But when you make the light bright
again, you know it’s a rope. And that rope can never fool you
again. Whenever you walk by the rope, you know it’s a rope
and it’s not a snake. The snake being the world and the rope
being Consciousness. But then someone says, “That’s a good
example, but when I see the world it doesn’t change for me like
it changes for you when you turn on the light and see it’s really
a rope. The world remains the same to me whether it’s dark or
light or whatever. How do you explain that?”

So again the answer is this. You are seeing the world like
water in the mirage. The water doesn’t change. But when you
first see the water in the mirage, you try to grab it and you
grab sand. After that, you know it’s a mirage but it always
appears as the water. It doesn’t change like the rope to the
snake. You always see the water. Only you don’t react to it any
longer. When you walk by the spot where the water is in the
mirage, you laugh, for you realize the water is not real. And so
the sage sees the world exactly the same way. The world no
longer fools the sage. It’s like water in the mirage. He partakes
of the world, but doesn’t get fooled by the world. The world
has no interest for him, for the identification is with the Self,
with Consciousness.

Then a pundit comes over and says, “Well, those are good
examples Robert, only look at it this way. When I’m in the

-112

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<g £iience o'fj the Q^Ceatt

world I can grab you, I can grab the lamppost, I can drive a car
and I can feel things. Whereas with your example of the water
in the mirage, you cannot feel the water because it doesn’t
exist. How do you explain that?”

So I guess I have to go to the dream world. In the dream
world you are born, you grow up, you go to school, you
become a doctor, and you get married, you have children, you
get old and you die. Only you were a dream baby being born.
And your dream baby is growing up to be a dream teenager.
You’re a dream doctor, and a dream person who gets married.
And you marry a dream girl, and you have dream children.
And you dream you get old and you dream you die. It’s all
going on in the dream. So you see, instead of asking all these
stupid questions, and you can go on and on and on, Self¬
inquiry is the easiest and fastest way to cut through all the
rigmarole and find out the truth for yourself. Because what
difference does it make what I see? What difference does it
make how I see things? Why should you believe me? About a
dream world, about water in the mirage, about the snake in
the rope. “Those are all great examples but I can’t feel that,”
you say. “I’m identified with the world and I hurt because the
world affects me,” you say. “Things affect me. When I see
man’s inhumanity to man, I cry. When I see a funny movie, I
laugh. When I get what I want out of life, I’m happy. When I
don’t, I’m sad. Therefore, these examples and all these things
you talk to me about don’t do me any good.”

Now that’s an intelligent observation. You should not accept
book learning at face value. You should not accept anyone’s
experiences at face value. You should develop your own truth.
I can tell you the world is Brahman, and that Brahman is
Absolute Reality. Absolute Reality is Pure Awareness, and so

<s£j>ivitual (£Pmctice

forth and so on. What good does that do you if you’re hurting?
There are things come into your life that you take very
seriously. And you don’t understand that your social body is
going through its karma, and it has absolutely nothing to do
with you. You identify with the conditioning. That’s the first
truth you have to admit to yourself.

Do not try to psyche yourself out by remembering all these
great truths.

That’s not going to do it for you. You and I know many
people who have memorized books by Nisargadatta, Ramana
Maharshi, and by others, and who can recite these books
backward and forward. But the first person who bumps into
them, they become angry. As soon as they hear they are going
to lose their job, they start crying and they get worried. It
appears that books are doing them good only when things are
going their way. Then they can quote from the books. But as
soon as their world tumbles down on them, they throw the
books away. And they do not believe a word they read. Until
things start improving, then they buy more books, (laughter)
Then something happens to them, and they fling the book
across the room and say, “This is nonsense!” But then it gets
better again, and they go out and buy another book. And it
goes on and on like this. I’m probably talking about some of
you. When will you grow up?

It’s only what you experience that matters to you. It’s not
what you read. So what if you learn a truth you haven’t learned
before. So what if you say this teacher expresses it this way,
and now I know it from this angle and that angle. I must
remind you again. Knowing truth intellectually does abso¬
lutely nothing for you. You might as well take LSD. Because
you only get psyched up. Then again, as soon as something

114 -

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(^itence ojj the (fffleatL

comes your way that you don’t like, you become an imbecile,
angry, mad, upset. You want to know if you’re making
progress on the path? When was the last time you got angry?
When was the last time that something mattered to you?
When was the last time you thought the world was hurting
you? When was the last time you became over-elated over
something good that happened to you? That shows you you’re
still in possession of your human faculties. You have not
transcended.

You cannot escape in a book. Many people, when they are
upset and they don’t want to think, will turn on the TV. But
people on the spiritual path will open a spiritual book. It’s like
turning on the TV, except you are memorizing spiritual truths.
I won’t say that that’s not any better than TV. Of course it’s
better than watching TV. But all the same, you can do that for
a thousand years and you hardly make any progress. How do
you make progress? By using books for reference only. By
practicing the methods I share with you. By practicing Self¬
inquiry. By watching as you go through life’s experiences and
not reacting. W atching yourself become depressed. W atching
yourself become angry. Do not deny it, but observe it. And if
you observe yourself correctly in that calm way, you can ask
yourself, “Who becomes angry? Who is feeling depressed?”
And follow it through. Do this over and over and over again,
as many times as you have to. One day, the anger will leave
you, the depressions will leave you, your thoughts will leave
you. And you’ll just BE.

Until that happens, do not fool yourself. Maya is very
powerful. Maya is apparent reality of the world. As long as you
believe you are the body, then the world is going to be very real
to you. This is why you work on yourself first. Remember,

<3 ^pkitual ^practice

your body as well as all the universe is a manifestation of your
mind. Therefore, when the mind begins to dissolve, so does
your body and so does the universe. Also remember, when
everything dissolves you do not see Consciousness. As I
mentioned in the beginning, you do not walk around and see
empty space. One person even told me he read in a book
somewhere that a sage walks around in a fog and sees fog-like
people. Where do they get these ideas?

I remind you again, the only difference between the sage
and yourself is you see the world and you identify with it. You
think it’s real. A sage sees the world and he knows it’s a
superimposition upon Consciousness. So he identifies with
Consciousness.

Robert, you were talking about books and how much
progress you've made on the path. Many teachers and books
talk about theory, but not much emphasis is really put on
practice. In fact, if you look at many books, they go into all of
the different theories and how one thing relates to another, and
this and that. But not too much of any book really goes into
actual practice of what they’re talking about. It’s why, I put this
little thing together on vichara practice and your saying how
much progress we’ve really made. Really, we can’t know how
much progress we’ve made because progress can be a very
dubious thing. In one sense you’re making progress, you may be
aware of it. In another sense, you may not be aware of it. On one
hand things may seem to get better and you may have a better
understanding. On the other hand, things may seem to get
intense, andyou can’t tell how far you’ve come until it’s all over.

As you go through the vicissitudes of life, what you’re
saying is true. But if you abide in the I, your problems of the

-116

- 117 -

c salience of^ the (ypteatt

world do not affect you as seriously, and you will appear to sail
through life more easily if you abide in the I.

But as you said, sometimes things intensify.

Things intensify, but to whom do they intensify? You abide
in the I and you watch all these things you’re going through.
You’ll find that you’re not affected as you used to be. They’re
not as meaningful any longer. It’s like being in a fire and you
don’t get burned as hard because you’re abiding in the I.

Sometimes, though, you may be doing that and be unaware.
You may think of yourself as being the same, when actually you
can’t tell.

Sometimes you can tell. But if you abide in the I, again you’ll
not be affected by those things and you’ll watch those things
come and go. You will rise higher by observing and not reacting.
Therefore, the safe thing to do is to always abide in the I.

Some of you wonder why you don’t make too much
progress on your spiritual journey. That’s not hard to see. Just
take a look at your belief system. Look at the way you’re living.

Some of you are afraid to make changes. You wantyour life
to be the same now and forever. You know this is impossible.
If you’re afraid to make a change, life will come along and pull
the rug from under you one day. And you’ll have to make a
change.

All the things that hold you back, your security blanket,
think about this. What is your security blanket? Food? The
opposite sex, or the same sex—whatever you prefer—or no
sex? All these things keep you back. Just being involved in a
movement, trying to make this world a better world in which
to live, keeps you back.

<3 ffjyhitual (^Practice

Now, some of you new people will feel sort of strange when
I say something like this. For you’re saying, “Aren’t we
supposed to help the world?” You’re supposed to find out who
you are. Your first and main job is to awaken. And then you
will see if you want to help the world. What world?

But first awaken. The more you become involved in peace
movements, or anti-peace movements, or this or that, the
more you get pulled into materiality. These are all commend¬
able things. It’s better than being a bank robber, I guess. So if
you have to do something, help other people. There’s no
question about this. But remember the truth." I’ve got to find
myself,” you should say.

You do not have to find yourself at the expense of others,
this is wrong. But be by yourself all you can. Realize that this
is your life. It is not your husband’s life. It is not your wife’s
life. It is not your children’s life. It is not your relative’s life.
It’s your life. You exist here and now. What are you doing with
it? How can you allow people to make you angry? How can you
allow people to tell you what to do? To make decisions for you?
All the answers are within yourself.

But you have to turn within yourself. You have to sincerely
turn within with a great passion, and find yourself.

The world appears very strong. People appear very real.
Some of us always seem to get involved in all kinds of situa¬
tions. Yet take a look at your life and see why you get involved.
Honestly look at yourself. Do not be afraid to see yourself. See
the things you do, the words you say, the thoughts you think.
And you’ll see why you’re not making too much progress.

Now, if you really want to make progress, you will drop
everything mentally. Remember when I speak of dropping
everything, I’m not referring to your quitting your job, moving

-118

119

<35 Hlence the {pieaU

to India, stopping reading books, or watching TV. I’m not
referring to this really, if that’s what you want to do. I’m
referring to mentally letting go of your reactions to whatever
is going on in your body and the world.

Leave the world alone. Leave people alone. Do not try to
change people. Or to make them see your point of view. There
is no point of view. Every point of view is wrong. We want to
get rid of points of view.

You have to sincerely want to awaken. And I kid you not, to
awaken is simple. You just have to give up everything men¬
tally. That’s all. And consider the fact that everything is
Consciousness. Everything. No thing is as it appears. This
includes yourself.

There are many people who stay the way they are, and they
are always talking about something outside themselves. They
try to change the world. They try to see the world as Con¬
sciousness. They shrug people off. They become indifferent.
This is not right.

You start with yourself. You take an honest look at your
habits, and see the things that you’re doing. Don’t worry about
other people. Remember you are creating others with your
mind. Everyone who is in your life, you have created yourself.
Otherwise where do they come from? You are the creator, and
all the things in your life are your creations. You have done
this unconsciously.

Karmically, you have attracted everybody in your life that’s
in your life right now. You think certain thoughts a certain
way, and you’ll attract those people in your life. If your mind
is full of larceny, bad thoughts, you will attract people like that
into your life. And then you will say, “It’s a bad world. You
can’t trust anybody.”

— 120 —

Cs$j piritual (£Pmctice

But it begins with you. You have to look honestly at things
holding you back from your own realization. And you have to
start working on yourself diligently, until the time comes
when you no longer have to do that.

-121

<zSutven$ev

There is really nothing to say. Words are superfluous.
The only reason I use words is so you can detect
the silence in the words.

Silence is truth. You cannot explain truth in words.
The words become meaningless, redundant.

The truth comes to you of its own free will
when you prepare yourself through deep surrender
to your Self

giving up all attachment, giving up your body, your mind,
and everything that's important to you,
to the Self

As long as you're holding on to anything,
the Reality will evade you.

The Reality only comes when you give up yourself
when you give up your ego,
when you give up your needs, your wants,
trying to make something happen, desires.

When you give up trying to become Self-realized.
When you just give up.

Then something wonderful happens.

You begin to expand.

Not your body, but the Consciousness which you are.
You become all pervading, Absolute Reality.

It happens by itself.

^o Q4)hom ^fou <^§mzen$er?

To whom should I surrender , Robert?

To your Self. The Self that is omnipresent, omniscient,

~ 123 ~

Silence oh the gpteatt

omnipotent. The Self that is all-pervading. The Self that is
Ultimate Oneness, Pure Awareness, Sat-Chit-Ananda, Para-
Brahman. Surrender to that Self, for you are truly That.

And you are amazed by what you have heard. You begin to
do just that. While you are at work, while you’re washing
dishes, while you’re watching TV, you always remember to
surrender. And one day the inner guru pulls your mind
inward to the Source and you awaken. You become liberated.
You become your Self. Then you’re free.

There is nothing in this world or anywhere else that can
affect you or cause harm to come to you unless you believe it.
The growth of the world is made up of mental beliefs. Every¬
thing that you behold is a projection of your mind, and
because it keeps changing constantly, you cannot say this is
reality. For instance, your body is not the same as it was ten
years ago, or twenty years ago or when you were first con¬
ceived. How can you therefore say that your body is real?

The world isn’t the same as it was twenty years ago.
Everything has changed. Then how can you possibly say the
world is real? Most of us are afraid to get into that subject, for
we begin to feel that nothing is permanent, and this brings
fear. If nothing is permanent, then who am I really? What am
I? Where did I come from? What is the source of myself? These
questions can only be answered by you.

There is something more beautiful, more grand, more
wonderful, than you could ever imagine, that exists within
you, which is the substratum of all existence. Yet in order to
feel this joy, this bliss, in order to find total freedom from life’s
so-called burdens, you have to dig for yourself. You have to
give up something. You can’t stay the way you are, with the
same disposition, the same values, the same preconceived

<s£uiten$ev

ideas, the same concepts, and be free. You cannot do this. You
have to do an about face and totally give up all your ideas
about life, totally surrender your ego, your mind, your body,
your preconceived ideas. To whom do you surrender this? To
your Self. Your self is going to say, “to God.” But who do you
think God is? God doesn’t want your problems. Why should
you give God your burden? Find out who this God is, from
where this God came, and you will soon realize that you have
created God in your image. There is no such God, but it’s
better than nothing. It’s good to know you have a big daddy
somewhere, who you can cry to, who you can scream at, and
blame for all your problems. Yet, as we grow, as we unfold, as
we let go of all this stuff we’ve been holding on to, something
happens; we become lighter. The burden seems to disappear
by itself.

The only burden you’ve ever had is your mind. There is no
other burden. See if you can stop your mind for a few
seconds and see how peaceful you are. When there are no
thoughts there are no fears, no worries. There are no anxi¬
eties, no desires, no wants, no greed, no hurt, no enemies. It
is the mind, the thoughts, that cause these things to come to
us. We actually create these conditions. We create our own
reality. Think of the kind of life you are living today, your
possessions, your friends, your loved ones, your employ¬
ment. Do these things come to you through luck or chance?
Of course not. You have created all things yourself. For you
have believed in the false self, you have imagined you are a
human being who has to go through experiences. You have
been brainwashed since you were little to believe the things
you believe today.

— 124 —

— 125 —

Silence erfj the (^pteazl
^£ibezation <§>xisU Q4)ithin { J ^outsellj

So, if you really want freedom, liberation, you do not go
searching for this. It is nowhere to be found. For it already
exists within yourself. You are already That, so where can you
go searching for it? Who can give it to you? If you want water,
you turn on the tap. You do not look at the tap and scream and
cry, “I want water.” You turn on the tap and you have water.
Yet when you were a little kid, you didn’t know how to turn on
the tap. Therefore, if you wanted a drink, you would cry and
make a fuss, and your mom or dad would open the tap and
give you a drink. So can you drink from the spring of eternal
life, which is your Reality. You have to turn on the tap. YOU
have to turn on the tap. You turn on the tap by letting go of
everything that you are. Everything. When I say everything, I
mean everything. You have to turn yourself inside out. Can
you imagine how you would look turned inside out? Wouldn’t
be a pretty sight.

Most of us believe, in Advaita Vedanta, that if you hear the
right word, that if you awaken through the grace of a sage, you
will be free. This is true in some cases. But these people that
you have read about in the holy books, who were touched by
the grace of a sage, these people have done their homework,
prior to this happening. You have to want it yourself, and
when you want it badly enough, something will happen to you.
When you desire liberation more than anything else in life,
this means you have begun to give up the rest of your stuff that
we talked about. That’s the only way to desire liberation. This
is a legitimate desire, because you are not really asking for
anything, you are giving up the stuff you don’t need anymore:
your anger, your pettiness, your bad disposition, your temper,

<g £uzzenBez

your greed, all of the things we were carrying around with us
so long.

This is how you desire liberation, by speaking to the Lord
within you. This is total surrender. “Lord, take my anger, take
my greed, take my bad disposition, take my temper,” and you
give it up totally. Once you do this, automatically you are
liberated. So you see, it’s not the other way around; it’s not
trying to find freedom, liberation, Self-realization, to add to
what we already are. You cannot add one iota to what you
already are because you are full up with your own garbage.
You therefore have to empty the garbage can, turn yourself
upside down, and empty yourself out, and it is then that you
will find that you are already free.

And even as I talk to you about these things, some of you
here are so full with yourself, small “s,” with your ego, that
you’ll never, never, never, let go completely and give up all
your stuff. For your ego has been telling you all these years if
you do this you’ll be nowhere. But isn’t this exactly where you
want to be? Nowhere! When you are nowhere, you are not
somewhere, and in the nowhere there is nothing. This nothing
is everything. This nothing is what we call Effortless Pure
Awareness, Absolute Pure Reality, Sat-Chit-Ananda, Nirvana.
It is what is left over after you have given up all your stuff.

ake (^Jief^uqe in ouzsebfj

What you really are you have to find out for yourself, and
you do that of course, by stopping identification with the
body. Do not react to conditions. That s being yourself. It s not
knowing words, or paragraphs, or phrases. It s not by memo¬
rizing scripture and trying to impress others. It’s by being

~ 126 —

-127

0 $Hlence the gpteatt

yourself. To be yourself, you just have to stop the thinking
process. Always remember it is your thoughts that keep you
from yourself. Every thought that comes to you is your enemy.
Even the good thoughts. For the good thoughts are just leading
you on. It is your mind playing tricks on you. The good
thoughts are trying to make you feel that this world is real, and
you should strive after certain things, you should enjoy the
world, and take it for what it’s worth. But then you have to
come under the law of change. And you become disillusioned
because the things in your life are no longer the same after a
while. Then you have to jump back into yourself and take
refuge in your Self. When you take refuge in your Self you
become happy. When you take refuge in your Self you have
peace. When you take refuge in your Self you have harmony,
you have joy.

It is a mystery to me why people would take refuge in the
outside world, in person, place or thing, when you know the
outside world is subject to the law of change, and is never the
same continuously. So whatever you take refuge in becomes
a disappointment, whether it’s a person, place, or thing.

There was once a young girl who was brought up in a house
of prostitution. This was her destiny at the time. She couldn’t
get away from it. But she used to pray to Ramana Maharshi,
“Oh Lord, if I must go this route, be with me. I’m not praying
to change my life, if this is my destiny. But I’m praying that
your strength and your love will always be with me.”

Now, across the street was a so-called Jnani. And he used
to stand in front of the market place telling everybody they’re
Consciousness, Absolute Reality, preaching, screaming. This
went on for years. Finally the time came when they both died
and they went before God. God told the girl, “You have to go

(^/uttender

back to the Earth, and you have to be a Jnani.” And he told the
so-called aspiring Jnani, “You have to go back to the Earth as
a snake.”

The man said, “How come, Lord? I extolled your virtues to
everyone. I told all the people they were Consciousness and
they were Absolute Reality, and you send me back as a snake.
What did I do?” And God said, “You have no heart. You come
from the talking school. All you did with your life was to talk,
talk, talk, talk, talk. But this girl gave me her heart. She
surrendered to me. She didn’t bemoan her fate. She just
wanted me to be with her during her trials and tribulations.
And I gave her the strength to carry on, so now she is free. But
you still have a lot to learn. So you have to go back as a snake.”

This makes us think. What are we really doing with our
lives? We read lots of books, see lots of teachers, have a lot of
head knowledge. But how many of us have given our hearts to
God? And God is not far away. God is really the Self. But in
order to contact that Self, you have to have a lot of humility. T o
feel God’s grace means you have to surrender completely, have
a lot of humility. You have to have the attitude, “I know
nothing. You are everything.” This kind of an attitude will set
you free.

And yet, how many of us have an attitude like this? Many
of us think to become a Jnani, to become Self-realized, we
become proud, and you actuallybecome more egotistical than
you ever were before. We have a holier than thou attitude. This
will never do it. There really is no difference between a bhakti
and a Jnani. One surrenders to God, and they have no other
life. They realize that whatever they do, it is God doing it.
Therefore it is good. They never complain. They never think
of their problems. They think of others and their problems

— 128 —

— 129 —

Silence the (^pteavt

rather than their own. And the other one realizes that the I is
responsible for all their problems, and for their existence. So
they trace the I back to its Source, to the Heart, and they
become free. At that stage there is a merging of both bhakti
and Jnana. So a bhakti is a Jnani and a Jnani is a bhakti.
Therefore, if you see a teacher who thinks they are better than
anybody else, and they seem egotistical, be careful. Most
Jnanis never take on a teaching role at all, and they have very
little to say. After all, what is there to talk about?

(g ?ust <s$einy ©As Enough

Just being is enough. Not being this, not being that, just
being. Being at satsang. And whether I talk about ice cream or
jellybeans it makes no difference. The words themselves have
value, because the sound of the words are the grace that you
feel. But the meaning of the words are only interpreted in your
mind. That’s why, whatever I say is taken differently by each
one of you. For it filters through your mind. And your Con¬
sciousness and your Beingness mix with the words, and the
words come out according to your way of life. But if you listen
with no-mind, then you get the true meaning. In other words,
do not put too much value on everything I say. But open your
heart so the Grace portion of it may enter, and you may pick
it up and lift yourself upward. How do you do this? Just by
becoming still, by stopping the mental activity. And you may
stop the mental activity by any method you know. If you like
to do pranayama, do that. If you like to practice vipassana
meditation, do that. You wish to observe your breath, do that.
If you wish to practice Self-inquiry, do that. In other words, do
whatever you have to do to stop your mind from thinking.

<=£>unen$et

Vichara, Self-inquiry is only to keep your mind from thinking.
That’s all it is. All the practices of yoga lead to the place where
you stop thinking. All of the higher religions are to make your
thoughts one-pointed. And when your mind stops, you
become your Self. You’re free.

There are no rituals you have to go through really. You
don’t have to chastise yourself and try to get rid of your guilt
feelings, samskaras, or anything else. Identifying with an
empty mind will do the job for you. But the empty mind is not
realization. It is the step before realization. Realization is not
an empty mind. Realization cannot be explained. Suffice it to
say that realization is beyond everything and anything you can
ever imagine. But if you achieve empty mind, then you’re on
the way to realization. At that stage the guru within yourself
will pull you inwardly, and you will awaken to your Self.

<=pte <S>No Shinty

So, number one, you have to develop humility. You have to
open your heart to loving kindness. Number two, you have to
forget about yourself and your problems as if they never
existed, and help others. Give of yourself to others, because
there is only One Self, and I Am As That. Number three, you
have to stop quoting teachers and telling yourself that I am
Brahman, I am no-mind, I am Consciousness, for that really
inflates your ego.

You have to stop comparing yourself with anybody or
anything. In other words, you have to become nothing, and
that hurts some of you. Because you say, after all, I’ve gone to
school for fifty years, I’ve got a profession, I’m doing this and
I’m doing that. And now you tell me I have to become nothing.

130 -

- 131 -

< 2 ?^itence ofi the (jpteatl

Well, Consciousness is nothing, it is no-thing. What you call
God is nothing. So if nothing is good enough for God, it should
be good enough for you, too. Can’t you see now that when you
say to yourself, “Well, I’ll never be nothing, I’m somebody,
I’ve studied for years, I’m somebody important...Can’tyou
see now that this is what holds you back? Every sage has come
to the point where they’ve thrown away the scriptures, thrown
away the books, thrown away their body, thrown away their
knowledge, and thrown away themselves with a small “s.”
When you get rid of all that stuff, then you become your Self.

(Suvcendei ©As <§MentaUy j^)one

Can you see now why it takes so long for some people?
Because they’re holding on to something. They say I can let go
of this, but I can never let go of that. I don’t mean you get to
the point where you don’t care. I don’t mean where you quit
your job or leave your family or go anywhere. You have to do
all this mentally. You do all this in your mind. You use your
mind to do all these things. And then the mind turns within
itself and disappears into the Heart. So take a look at your life
and see what’s holding you back. What are you attached to?
What do you think is important in this world?

You cannot have both. You cannot mentally be attached to
person, place and thing, and awaken at the same time. If you
want liberation, you have to pay the price. And the price is
letting go, giving it all up, surrendering. Having perfect faith
that all is well. Not trying to interpret what “all is well” means.
Just realize that everything is in its right place, just the way it is.
Don’t interpret it. There are no mistakes. As you begin to dwell
on this, as you begin to dwell on these things, automatically you

(Sunenfret

will come to the place where you will realize the last thing you
need to go is the I. Everything has been attached to the I. But
you see how long it takes to get there? You have to do every¬
thing else first. This is why it’s dangerous for some people to
just teach jnana marga by itself. For egotistical people become
greater egotists. It builds up your ego. You have to have
humility first and go through all these things we discussed. If
you really want to do this, you will.

You will not do this by taking action, but by sitting in the
Silence and surrendering your mind and your body to your
Self. I Am will take care of Itself. You see, I Am is your real
nature. Therefore you do not have to try to bring it about. All
you’ve got to do is to realize that this stuff that’s holding you
back has to be given up. Everything has to go, your whole
belief system. What are you holding on to? Think, what’s in
your mind that is so strong? Fear? A job? All these things are
meaningless if you want to awaken. You will still have your
job. You will still do whatever you came here to do. I have to
emphasize this because we always believe—and the question
that I get from most of you is that—“How will I function if I
do what you say?” I keep telling you, have no fear, you will
function. You will function much better than you can ever
imagine. It’s hard right now working with your ego, to think
“How can I function without a mind?” but you will.

Here is something that cannot be explained in words.
When you get to the Ultimate State, you become human like
everybody else. That’s why it’s difficult to know what a sage is,
because a true sage appears no different than you and I. The
Ultimate State is functioning like everybody else, except there
is something inside, there’s something that makes you
understand that you are like the mirror, and your body, your

-132

133

(salience the (spteatl

affairs, and everything else in the universe is a reflection. You
become both. It appears that you act out your humanhood,
but you’re not human. And this is the most difficult state to
explain. For it is beyond words. It is beyond thoughts. It is
beyond reasoning.

You cannot be reasonable to become liberated. It’s beyond
every human faculty. That’s why you can’t think about it, and
you cannot try to explain it. And you can’t even discuss it. All
you can do is to do whatever you have to do to get rid of all
your stuff. That’s all. And everything else will take care of
itself.

(^Renunciation

You have absolutely nothing to give up.

Nothing to surrender, nothing to let go of.

You are already liberated.

How can you believe that you have to let go of something
that never existed?

You believe that you have to let go of your attachments.
How can the Self have attachments?

You think you have to surrender all of your fears,
all of your depressions,
all of the things that have been bothering you.
Surrender to whom? Those things are not yours.

They do not belong to you.

You are Pure Reality. You are the Imperishable Self.
Never were you born, never did you prevail,
and never will you leave.

You are the One. The All-Pervading One.
Consequently, you have absolutely nothing to give up.

For you had never anything to begin with.

It’s really egotistical to believe you’ve got
something to give up.

There’s nothingyou have to surrender.

It’s only the ego that believes that something
has to be surrendered,

something has to be given up, you have to let go of something.
Who is the one who had something to begin with?

There is no one.

There is only the One Reality, and you are That.

- 134 '

- 135 -

(Silence of the <Styeatt
'Sohe Qne (Self

You come to sit with me in the Silence. In the Silence is
where all the power is. In the Silence is where all the answers
are. Happiness comes to you all by itself. Joy comes to you.
When you sit in the Silence you remember who you are. We
come to see we are all one Self. What does this mean? It means
we are not separate, we are one, One Self. Think of that. We
are all the One Self.

The One Self expresses Itself through choiceless, effortless,
Pure Awareness. Choiceless, effortless, Pure Awareness. This
is what you are, Pure Awareness. Think about this. You are
Pure Awareness, choiceless, effortless, Pure Awareness. What
do we mean by Pure Awareness? Pure Awareness simply
means that you are All-Pervading Consciousness. Your
essence is in everything. You are aware that the whole uni¬
verse is a direct product of your thinking, of your mind. It is
only aware. You are aware of the trees, of the mountains, the
sky, like boundless space, Pure Awareness. You are aware of
reality, the truth of yourself. Yourself is Pure Awareness and
you are That. Ponder this. The Self is Pure Awareness and you
are That.

<3Attachment anB the S-^^ou^ht

If you only knew what this meant to you. You are totally
free, completely free—effortless, choiceless, freedom. Every¬
thing else is an illusion. Everything else is an illusion, the
world, universe, personal God.

Everything else is an illusion. So where do all these things
that look so real come from? Where do all the people come

Sienunciation

from? Where do all the things come from, that you see all day
long? Where does everything come from? From the I-thought.
The I-thought produces the small self. That’s what makes you
think you are a body and a mind, that it’s your condition, that
you have problems. You have to work through things. The I-
thought does all these things for you. It ruins your life com¬
pletely. It hides reality, and produces a world. Therefore, you
come back to the Self. You have to somehow transcend the I-
thought. And this is done by forgetting all the knowledge that
you have up to now. All the knowledge that you know. Every¬
thing you’ve been taught since childbirth has to be given up.
All your beliefs, all your dogmas, preconceived ideas, they all
have to go. When they’re gone you rest in the Self, and you will
be unconditioned, choiceless, awareness.

We have something we own. A person, place, or thing. We
cannot get it out of our mind. We’re attached. Because of this
attachment we go through many lives, it appears. And we go
through many experiences, simply because we are attached to
something. It can be mental or physical. Even if you hate
someone. If you hate someone or something with a passion,
that’s attachment. You will come back to this earth or to
another planet similar to this earth again and again and again.
And you will meet this person that you hate so much under
different circumstances again and again and again. One time
he may be your daughter, he may be your mother, he may be
your husband, he may be your wife. But that person that you
despise so much will meet you again and again, and do things
to you in order to upset you. And you will hate again and
again. You will never be free until you understand.

The understanding is to turn within, to forget about the
person, but to see your own reality. To trace the I-thought to

~ 136 —

-137

Silence of the <zp£eatt

the source. After all, it is the I-thought that hates and loves.
That has attachments to person, place or thing. When the I-
thought is transcended, only the Self remains. Then your
karma is finished, your body is finished, your God is finished,
and you’re home free. But as long as you allow a person, place
or thing, and maybe your own body that you’re attached to,
your own mind, that’s person, place or thing also—as long as
you deeply feel those things—you will never become free until
you let them go.

Whatever you’re no longer attached to, gives way. What¬
ever you’re no longer holding on to, no longer holds on to you.
And as you let go of your opinions toward person, place and
things, you find that you’re growing, you’re evolving. You’re
beginning to become something that is ineffable. Something
that cannot be explained. Something that is so wonderful,
you’ll never dream that something like this existed. Yet it does.

You have to reconcile yourself with the whole universe. The
mineral kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, the animal king¬
dom, the human kingdom. When you have become friends
with the entire universe, you will not have to do Atma vichara.
You will not have to trace the I or worry about the I. Just the
reconciliation with the universe will free you. After all, when
you love everything, unqualified, what else can you do?
There’s nothing else. The total love of the whole universe kills
the ego. For it is the ego that plays the other games with you.
That makes you love someone special or hate someone special.
That makes you despise certain animals and eat them. That
makes you think poison ivy is worse than the rose. That causes
you to qualify life. A sage sees everything as equal. Nothing is
worse or better than any other thing. And just by hearing this,
allowing it to go into your Heart, feeling it, will lead you to an

c^lenunciation

awakening. Think of the problems you think you have. Why
are they a problem? What difference do they make? There is
nothing in the world that’s that important, for you to want to
feel badly, or where you want to get revenge, or you’re afraid
that something will happen to your body. You’re concerned
about a loved one. You’re worried about the world situation.
When you’re like that, you are assuming responsibility for
these things. After all, you didn’t ask to really get born. You
didn’t ask to get born to the family where you were born. Into
the nationality, into the religion that you were born into. In
the city and state and country that you were born into. The
Power that takes care of that knows how to take care of you.
Don’t you see, there isn’t anything you have to do to help. In
other words, God doesn’t need your help. All you have to do is
to take a deep breath and say, “Take it God. I’m finished with
it. I will never worry again. I will never be upset over anything
again.”

Now where are you coming from? What do you see when
you wake up in the morning? You worry about your life, it’s
not going where you want it to go? You think you have to find
a teacher someplace far away? And the teacher will give you
something that you need. A special book that you can read,
that will enlighten you and make you happy. Give you some
thing that you can do, become peaceful, relaxed, that will last.
None of these things ever last. For a while, for a few moments,
for a few days, a few months, a few years. Then you revert
back to what you were before, because the mind has never
been destroyed.

Your job is to destroy the mind that thinks about these
things. That’s why you’re here. To destroy the ego completely.
That’s the only way you’ll be free, totally free forever—the

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Silence (rjj the (cpCeatt

only way. Ponder these wisdoms I’m speaking to you and see
if I’m not right. Every teaching is of the mind. Every teacher
that you chase, every teaching that he gives you or she gives
you, is from the mind. Only from the mind. If there is no
mind, you’ll have nothing to look for. And the mind wants to
search and look. But if there is no mind, who’s left to look,
who’s left to see? So life goes on with the seek and the object of
the seek. This is how we’re made to see the objects, and
identify with the objects. I’m saying transcend the seer and the
objects both. By inquiring to whom does the object come to?
Who sees this object? What is its source? You must ask this
question repeatedly all day long. What is the source of my
misery? What is the source of my happiness?

Will your mind try to be judgmental? Catch yourself. Ask,
“To whom does this come? To whom does this judgment
come? It comes to me. I think this. But am I really the I that
thinks this? Am I an I? Where did I come from? Who am I?
Who is the thinker?” And go beyond. Keep going beyond
everything that comes to your mind. Go beyond all the
answers. Until you’re left in total peace. When there are no
more answers, you’re totally free and peaceful.

As long as you are looking for answers, you can have no
peace or happiness. Always remember, this world is not a
world to improve, even if you are trying to make this a better
world in which to live. You can’t do this. It will only be for a
few days, a few months, a few years. This world is not a world
to be improved at all. It’s a world to be gotten rid of, in the
mind. It starts in the mind. It begins in the mind.

Don’t think that if some day the world will be a better place
in which to live, you’ll be happy. It will never happen. Since
the beginning of time, man has tried to improve this world, to

(^Renunciation

no avail. Things sometimes seem to improve for a while, but
it will become worse than ever before. Why? Because this is the
way of this world. You have to have friction in this world in
order for it to survive. If there is no friction in this world, this
world would disintegrate totally. You’d have no world. It’s
good and bad, right and wrong, up and down, forward and
backward. In order for a jet plane to fly, there has to be the
same amount of power pushing it back, resisting. This is how
the plane flies; it has to have resistance. If there was no
resistance it wouldn’t fly. It wouldn’t be able to get off the
ground. So it is with our life. In order to achieve something,
there has to be resistance. Think about this. All you wish to
achieve in life, you have to have resistance in order to achieve.
If there was no resistance, there would be nothing to achieve.

This is why I say to you, Advaita Vedanta has nothing to do
with this world whatsoever. You try to make yourself a better
human being, or a more competent person. This just makes
you more worldly. You’ve got to get off this planet totally and
completely. And when you get off this planet, you have to fly
away to some place like Mars, where you go deep within and
touch Reality. It’s what’s comprehensible, what happens when
you touch Reality. It’s more beautiful than you can ever
understand or appreciate. So stop searching, stop looking,
stop being what you are, what you think you are. Stop doing
everything you do mentally. I know you’re concerned what’s
going to happen to you if you stop thinking. You’ll always be
taken care of. You’ll get all the things you need.

Again, think what is the worst thing that can possibly
happen to you? You can die. There is no such thing as death.
You all know this. You can lose a fortune. You came into this
world without a fortune and you’re going out without a

— 140 —

—141 ~

<s£ilence of) the <ypCeatt

fortune. Have no concern about these things. Karmically you
have and you are going through the experiences you have to go
through. But that’s for your body, not for you. Do you not see
by now that you’re totally free? Your real nature is Absolute
Goodness, Parabrahman, Absolute Reality. You are the Self,
the All-Pervading Self. What can you possibly fear? What can
anyone possibly do to you? You are free. You are whole. You
are complete. And there is only one of you. There never was
you and me. There is only the One. And that One is Absolute
Reality. You are that One. You are the body of Bliss. Wake up.
Get rid of all those feelings that are beseeching you to do all
these stupid things. Awaken. Be free. Simplify your life. Have
no fear. Fear is another thing that you become attached to and
it keeps you back.

Never believe that you have something important to think
about. All things are not important. No matter what you may
think about it, it’s not important. As long as you have to think
of something, it’s not important. Y et you say to yourself, “How
can I function without thinking?” Think of what you said.
“How can T function without thinking?” Not you, but “I.”
What you’re really saying is, how can the I function without
thinking. What I are you referring to? The ego I has to think to
exist, but the I Am Consciousness is self existent. There’s
nothing to think about. So whenever you’re thinking about
something, realize it’s the I-consciousness, the I-ego so to
speak, that does the thinking. If you go beyond the I-ego and
go back to the I Consciousness, your thoughts will stop. There
will be no thoughts. For again, what is Reality to think about?
Reality is Reality. It’s All-Pervading, Omnipresence. There’s
no room or space for it to think. It is a power which knows
Itself. The power that knows Itself is Consciousness, the

< 2 ^Renunciation

Absolute Reality. It can only know Itself and nothing else,
because nothing else exists apart from the Self. There is no
duality in the Absolute Reality. Duality only appears to exist at
the human level. It’s an appearance. It’s not true. It’s not real.
You can say this to yourself.

Look at the world. The world is a cosmic joke. It appears to
be real. The good things, the beautiful things, the horrible
things. They are all imposters. The world is a world of duality.
For every good there has to be a bad. It has to balance. For
every bad there has to be a good. For every up there is a down.
For every forward there is a backward. We can never under¬
stand this world. It’s too complex. Get out of it. Not by
committing suicide, but by transcending the mind and body,
and awakening to your real Self. That’s how you get out of it.
Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Stop paying so much attention
to your thoughts, to the world, to your body. Let come what
may. Surrender totally to your Self. Your Self is God, Con¬
sciousness. Begin to identify with the I Am, not with condi¬
tions. Leave conditions alone. As I told you before, you are not
responsible for anything. Get rid of your guilty feelings.

Mentally, you have to feel in your heart the Oneness of
Eternity. And until we mature and this comes first in our lives,
we will only go so far on the spiritual path. Where your heart
is, that’s where God is. Today, think, “What is this thing I’m
attached to?” What is so meaningful for me in this world? And
realize it is that which is keeping you back. Let go of it men¬
tally, by turning within, and realizing that “I” feel this. I feel I
need this. Where does the I come from? Follow the I thread to
the source and become liberated.

When you follow the I to its Source, then all of your
troubles, your problems, your life, your world, become

142 -

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C "Silence of the gpCeazt

dissolved in the Source. Until that happens, realize that you
are not the I that has problems. That’s the point. It is the I that
sometimes feels depressed or worried or hurried or upset or
fearful. It is depressed I that feels that way. Yet, that’s not you.
You are not the personal I. Even though you are following the
I, you are following a mirage, an optical illusion, for you are
not the I. You are Absolute Reality, Nirvana, Sat-Chit-Ananda,
you are not the I. If you are not the I, then who has the
problems? Who has the sickness? Who has the doubt? Who
has the suspicions? Who has all these worldly problems, that
most human beings have? “I” do, but I am not the “I.” Yet “I”
has the problem.

Do you see what I mean? “I” has the problem. Not me, but
“I.” In this case, “me” is Absolute Reality, Pure Awareness,
Consciousness. Therefore, this is the best psycho-therapy
that’s ever been invented. For you can step back and watch the
I having the problems. You can understand and realize
intelligently that the real me, the real Self, can never have a
problem. It’s impossible. Yet “I” feel the problem. You
immediately catch yourself and realize yes, “I” feels the
problem. You see, not me, but “I” feels the problem. Then you
forget for a while and you say, “I feel depressed.” And you
catch yourself and you laugh. You say, “I” feels depressed, “I”
feel out of sorts, not me, but “I.” Then after a little while you
forget again, and you say, “I feel sick.” Then you remember.
You say “I” feels sick. Not me, but “I.” You do this all daylong.
Finally, what will happen is that you will separate your Self
from I. You will no longer look at your body as I. You will no
longer look at your mind as I. When you realize that I is
everything in the universe, I must also be the body and the
mind. You then realize that you are not the body and you are

(^denunciation

not the mind, but “I” is. I is the body and I is the mind. I is all
the problems. You separate yourself. You watch. You observe
I having all these problems, and pretty soon you’re having a
good laugh at yourself. Y ou’ll feel freedom. If you practice this,

I can assure you that you will feel a freedom that you never felt
before. You will feel Omnipresent. You will feel an indwelling
bliss. You will come to see that the body does not exist as a
body. You will look at yourself and see the body, but you will
laugh. You will know it’s not your body. There is no body. It’s
like the water in the mirage. There is no water. It only appears
so. That’s the way the body is. You appear to have a body, but
you don’t really. “I” has the body. And I doesn’t really exist.
Do you see this revelation now? There is no I, there’s no body.
Then what gets old and dies? What gets sick? What becomes
depressed? And the answer is, nothing. There is no one to get
depressed, there is no one to die. There is no one to have
mental anguish. There is no one left to do anything. You’re
home free.

fAJ-ou BAre (sAJot the S&oez

When you feel this way, there is nowhere to go, because
everywhere you go, you are the Self. No thing makes you
happier than another thing. It’s all the same. You no longer
differentiate between objects. All the objects become like a
piece of clay that you have taken to make objects out of. But
you realize it all comes from the same piece of clay. That’s how
it is with your life. There is no one doing anything. There is
absolutely nothing to do. When I say there’s absolutely
nothing to do, I do not necessarily mean you’re going to sit
still and sit in one chair all day long. This appears paradoxical.

~ 144 —

-145

3 ?Silence of the (zpCeart

Your body will appear to be doing this. And yet you will know
beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is no one doing any¬
thing. Think about that.

This is a very important point. You will appear to go to the
movies, if you have a job to go to work, to come home, to get
married, to get divorced, to go swimming, to do whatever you
do. Yet you will know, no one is doing anything. How can that
be? How can you appear to be doing something, yet nothing is
being done. The sky appears blue, and yet upon investigation,
there’s no sky and no blue. So you appear to be doing some¬
thing, but there is no doer. There is really no one who needs to
do anything, or does anything. Space and time have been
eliminated. You are in an entirely different dimension where
you appear as if you are moving, working, experiencing, and
there is nothing being done. I admit that state is difficult to
think of, yet it is the truth. No one has ever done anything.

There is only One, and that One is All-Pervading and
Omnipresent. There is only One. And if that One is All-
Pervading and Omnipresent, where is there room to do
anything? Think of it this way. Look at it this way. If you were
the only one in the universe, and you were the size of the
universe, all of the planets and the stars and the moon and the
earth, people, places and things would be within you. You
would have no space to do anything. Yet everything is being
done within yourself. It’s the same thing. This is really the
truth about you. You are the microcosm and the macrocosm.
When you are working in duality, in ignorance, you appear to
be a small human being, and you look around you, and you
see billions of human beings just like you. You argue with
them. You fight with them. You love them. You do all kinds of
activities with fellow human beings. But as you work on

C ^.enunciation

yourself, and as you begin to rise in Consciousness, something
tells you there is only One. There is not you and I. There’s only
the I. And the I doesn’t exist. Therefore, there is no thing that
you can comprehend that exists. There is no such thing as
existence. There is no God that creates the universe. There is
no being that causes anything to happen. The highest truth is,
nothing is happening.

Separate from the “&$” an$ <3^n>aken

So you say, “That may be true, Robert, but I’m suffering. I
have mental anguish. I appear to be ill. I have difficulty with
people. Why?” Simply because of wrong identification. You
are identifying with the apparent existence. As long as you
identify with existence, you’re going to appear to exist. And if
you exist, you’re going to have problems. For every human
being that’s born has a problem. There are no exceptions. As
long as you believe you are born, you’ve got a problem.
Therefore, somehow you have to get rid of the notion that you
were born. You have to get rid of the notion that you exist, and
you have to get rid of the notion that you’ve got a problem. In
other words, you have to wake up. You have to wake up to
your Reality. No birth, no death, no problem. Nobody dies,
because nobody was born. I can go on and on like this, but if
you’re not experiencing what I’m talking about, how can you
believe me? I know some of you here have had a glimpse of
this Reality, so you know it’s so. But most of you have not.
How can you accept this? You have to experience it within
yourself. That is the only way you can ever wake up.

Do not experiment in the world. How do you experiment in
the world? When you believe those trees are beautiful. Beautiful

~ 146—

—147—

<z§ilence ofi the (jpteait

sunset, beautiful sunrise, beautiful flowers, beautiful people.
As good as it may sound, this keeps you back from awakening.
Why? Because you are identifying with an external cause that
does not exist. You do not realize that the beautiful tree comes
from your mind. The beautiful sunset is in your mind. All of
the beauty and all of the ugliness that you perceive, is all
within your Self. You are that Self. So the person who wants to
awaken when they look at beauty, they realize they are
projecting it. They are both imposters. Two sides of the same
coin. And you start to inquire, “To whom has this come?”
Think about that. When you behold all the beauty outside of
the window, instead of being in awe and admiring it, ask,
“Who sees this?” In other words, the beauty that you see out
there really comes from in here. You are the beauty. It only
exists out there because you exist over here.

When you are in deep sleep at night, who sees? There are
no trees. There are no flowers. You are in deep sleep and yet
you are awake. Deep sleep is the closest thing to Self-realiza¬
tion there is. Do you ever wonder why, when you come out of
deep sleep you say, “I feel good”? There is no one who comes
out of deep sleep who feels bad. You may have a bad dream.
But I mean when you are really in deep sleep and you wake up,
if you catch yourself, you’ll see you feel good. You feel great.
You feel wonderful. It’s only when you start to think, that the
feeling changes. Check it out for yourself. Why? Because deep
sleep is really bliss. Yet it is unconscious bliss. Liberation is
conscious bliss. Liberation is when you’re awake and you’re
conscious. You’re not conscious of anything in particular,
you’re just conscious. That’s liberation. So when you see
anything external from yourself and you get involved in it,
catch yourself. Realize it’s coming out of you, and question,
“To whom does it come?”

C ^Renunciation

I know there are many of you who like to go hiking, like to
climb mountains, like to become part of nature. That’s OK, but
do not believe that these things are external from yourself.
These things are yourself. You are That. When you question,
“To whom does this come?” you again realize, “It comes to
me, I perceive it.” Then you remember that you are not I. “I”
perceives it. Yet in reality, you are not the perceiver. You are
not the witness. “I” perceives it. “I” is the witness. This is a
very important point, and I want you to understand it because
it can change your whole life. Whatever you see in the world,
you are to realize that “I” perceives. But do not look at I as
being the self. You have to catch yourself and say, “I” per¬
ceives. This does not mean that you perceive it. It is “I” that
perceives it. When you separate yourself from the I, all is
what? Consciousness. It is only when you believe that you are
I, that your humanhood comes into play. But as soon as you
perceive that I is the universe, you have separated yourself
from I. And then Consciousness comes into play, you have
awakened. In other words, when you can separate from your
I, you will be awakened and liberated.

Play this game every day. Whatever you see, whether it is
your body or your mind, or other people. When someone does
something to you that you don’t like, the worst thing you can
do is react. Can you see why, now? Because when you react
you are affirming your humanhood and your ego becomes
stronger. But when you no longer react, the ego becomes
weaker and weaker and weaker. The I and the ego are the
same. I know most of you believe when you see the bad things
of life, man’s inhumanity to man, all the dastardly things you
see on TV, you want to separate yourself from that, but it’s the
good things also. You are not the good things and you are not

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< s^ilence ofi the gpteait

the bad things. You are no thing. You are not trying to ex¬
change bad for good. Play the game with yourself. Whenever
you think of a beautiful sunset, catch yourself. Ask yourself,
“To whom has this come? It has come to me. I perceive it.”

^he “0$” J^oes ©Not <=ptelong to ^ou

Before you ask, “Who am I?” remember to realize that you
are not the I. The I that perceives is not you. In other words
what you must do from now on, is when you refer to I, you’re
not talking about yourself. Can you remember that? Whenever
you use the word “I” you want to catch yourself and say, “I is
not me. Me is, Who am I?” Me is the question, “From what
source does the I come?” But the I has absolutely nothing to do
with you. If it has nothing to do with you, this means that you
do not have to struggle to give it up. If the I really belonged to
you, you would have a fight on your hands. For you would be
looking for all ways to remove the I. But when you remember
that the I does not belong to you, there’s nothing to fight. You
simply realize you are not I. Then, “Who am I?” If you practice
this in the way I’ve just outlined, when you say, “Who am I?”
you will have a completely new revelation. You do not say
“Who am I?” until the very end. Until you come to the realiza¬
tion that the I is not me. Therefore, everything that’s attached
to the I is not me. My problems, my house, my family, my
birth, all attached to the I. And since the I does not exist,
nothing exists. If nothing exists, then who am I?

Remember, never say, “Nothing exists and I am Con¬
sciousness” because you don’t know what you’re talking
about. It’s just words. Never say, “The I does not exist, but I
am Sat-Chit-Ananda.” Those are just words for you. You have

(^Renunciation

to inquire, not make a statement. Do not make a statement.
This is not a metaphysical class where you make affirmation.
Affirmations are kindergarten. That’s just to improve your
humanhood. What you’re trying to do is get rid of your
humanhood, not improve it. Everything is a question. I am not
I? I am not the body? I am not anything that is attached to the
I? Then who am I? If you’ve gotten this far, then when you say,
“Who am I?” you will be in deep Silence, and you’ve come a
long way.

So let me succinctly recapitulate. Starting tomorrow
morning when you get up, whatever you see, say to yourself
“That’s not me.” Whatever you feel, whetheryou feel wonder¬
ful or you feel depressed makes no difference, say to yourself
“That’s not me.” Whatever you hear, whatever you feel,
whatever you touch, whatever you smell, say to yourself
“That’s not me.” But then admit “I smell it, I taste it, I touched
it, I feel it, but that’s not me. It is the I that is going through the
experience of the senses, feeling, touching, tasting, smelling.
But I am not the I. Then who am I?” What I want you to do
now is to close your eyes, and practice this on yourself. Go
through the whole thing. Look out the window and look at the
trees how beautiful they are and realize the trees are not
coming from nothing. They come from “I.” So the beauty of
the trees is “I.” I have nothing to do with it. But “I” does. So
who am I? Practice this on yourself.

<sRe <^tiU, <=£Re ^ourself)

You see, the beautiful thing about all of this, you are
already enlightened. You are already Self-realized. But you
refuse to believe it. How do you refuse to believe it? By

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151 -

(^ilence of the (<pteazt

completely believing everything else. By feeling the world. By
allowing all conditions to annoy you, to bother you, to react to
them. This hides your reality as if you were hypnotized. And
you believe there’s a world with others. Believing there is a
world that you have to overcome, conditions you have to
transcend, and you have a battle on your hands.

The truth is you have nothing to transcend, nothing to
overcome. Silence is your reality. Stop thinking. Be silent. Be
quiet. Allow the mind to become quiescent. Never mind
what’s going on. What is going on is always going on, and will
keep going on when you’ve gone. Do not concern yourself with
this world, or get caught up in it, and it will be like the world
will come and go. Sitting back from the world, you remember
who you really are, what you really are. You have absolutely
nothing to do with this world. I know it sounds strange when
I say this, but you have absolutely nothing to do with this
world. Nothing. This world doesn’t belong to you at all.

For you are not here at all. There are no mistakes. Where
are you? You are nowhere, yet you’re everywhere. Why ponder
these things? Why think about these things? Just be your Self.
Refuse to acknowledge the world, and worldly things. Know
yourself as Pure Awareness, effortless, choiceless, Pure
Awareness. Know yourself this way. When you first awaken in
the morning and get out of bed, say this to yourself: “I am
choiceless, effortless, Pure Awareness.” And keep still. You’ll
be surprised how good you feel. “I am effortless, choiceless,
Pure Awareness.” Yet you think you’re somebody else. You
think you are a male, or female, you have a name, you have a
profession, a program, and you refer yourself to these things.
But I tell you, you are not these things at all. Drop these things.
Get rid of your pride, your ego. So you believe you have to

(-Renunciation

make things happen, you have to get ahead of people. What
has to happen has already happened.

It’s so easy to become peaceful. It’s so easy to become
loving, blissful, happy. You just have to reject all those
thoughts that come to you—all those thoughts, all those
feelings, all the emotions. Just reject them. You reject them by
not giving them power. You give them power every time you
let them feel something inside of you. When your thoughts
take on a feeling nature you give them power. But when you
refuse to take on that feeling nature, the thoughts disappear.
In other words, you are the one that gives them power. You are
the one that creates your condition, be it good or bad. You are
the one who sees the world the way you see it. See only
yourself, see only Reality. See only emptiness. It’s really very
simple to do this. Just sit the way you’re sitting now and
observe. Do not analyze, don’t try to change your thoughts, do
not fight your thoughts, just observe them, watch them, look
at them, and when you’re ready you can ask the question, “To
whom do these thoughts come?”

Otherwise, just sit and look at your thoughts. Let your mind
do whatever it likes. Let it become as nasty as it wants! Let the
mind tell you all kinds of things—scary things, happy things,
wrong things, right things. The mind is only here to make
trouble for you, that’s all. But when you do not allow the mind
to make trouble for you, it disappears! And how do you do
this? By not reacting to your thoughts. By not allowing them to
feel anything. Where do these thoughts come from? Nowhere.
They are called false imagination. All thoughts are false
imagination. False imagination is like the water in the mirage.
That’s where your thoughts are. They appear to come to you
but they don’t exist. If they were real you’d be able to grab

152 -

153 -

C'Silence (rfj the (jpteact

them, hold on to them, save them, put them in a box, store
them away. But you cannot do this, which proves that they
have no substance. How can they frighten you?

Always remember the idea is to stop thinking completely.
Nothing functions mentally at all. Yet some of you still believe
if you stop functioning mentally you will become a vegetable,
you wouldn’t be able to function. This is not true. What you
were will not function. But what you become will function very
well. You will always appear to function. Yet there is no
function-er. You are not what you seem to be. No matter how
many times I tell you this, you’re still thinking, thinking,
judging, judging, coming to conclusions, trying to work out
your life. You have to let go. Totally, absolutely, completely.
You have to let go so completely that you will feel no body, no
mind, no pain, nothing. That is the only time you will make
progress. Do not think about this. The thoughts cannot help
you. There are no thoughts that can help you realize the Self.
It is only a total completely letting go, giving up. What do you
give up? You give up the ego, the mind, your opinions about
things. That’s all you give up.

But yet a tree seems to appear, it turns into a beautiful tree
as it grows. So will you appear. Yet you’ll know you’re not the
appearance. You will know that you’re totally free and you are
Omnipresence, All-Pervading. The whole universe is taking
place inside of yourself. And if you’re no self, there’s no
universe. You are beyond the no-self, where there is a no no¬
self.

You’re beyond the no no-self, where there are no words to
describe it. Yet it is so beautiful, so blissful, so joyous, that if
you have had a taste of it, you’d never return. You’d never
want to go back to humanhood. This is why there have been

(^Renunciation

many who have been touched slightly by this realization. They
have been touched by truth. And they can remember there’s
something there, even though they’re back to their human self,
so it appears. They never forget that touch. And these people
are the ones who strive forward to go all the way, and to
realization.

What does it mean to go all the way? It means to look at
your life as a picture show. All the experiences are images on
the screen. It means not to regulate your life at all in any way,
but to observe it and watch it. To look at it intelligently. To see
the emotions that come into your mind. To observe the fears,
the arrogance, and not to do anything about them. But to look
at them, look through them and become free. Only by looking
through them can you become free of them.

Think of an emotion that you have that bothers you. Perhaps
you have a bad temper, a fearful disposition, whatever. First you
have to see it. Then you dive deep, deep, within it. And it will
totally and completely disappear. It will never bother you again.
When you try to change things, they all appear to be fine for a
while. Then you’ll find yourself in the same position you were
before. Different people, different places. You don’t want to
change anything. You want to be still and look. As you become
still and look, what you’re looking at will look back at you. As
you look at the world without interpretation, as you look at the
world without attachment, what the world is will be revealed to
you. The world will be revealed to you as no thing. As an image
on the screen of Consciousness. You will become radiantly
happy for no reason whatsoever. You will find the peace that
you never dreamed existed.

You have to want this. You have to love this. You have to
want this more than anything else in this world. When I say

-154

-155-

<^ilence of the (^Keait

c^Aenunciation

more than anything else in this world, I don’t mean it in a “I
don’t have it sense and I want it.” I mean to feel and believe
and know that you are That. And you want That to be uncov¬
ered for you by going deeper all the time. By letting go of all
the things that seem to be happening in life. Continuing to
dive deeply within the Self. You dive deeply within the Self to
the extent that you give up the stuff that you’ve been carrying
around for years. There is no one who cannot awaken. Since
your real Self is already awake, there is nothing that can keep
you back but yourself. By the self I mean your mind, your
thoughts. Your thoughts are the only things that keep you
back. You have to look at these thoughts and not allow them
to do anything to you. Do not allow them to frighten you. You
have to remember to practice Self-inquiry. To inquire to
whom do these thoughts come? To always think in your mind,
there are no thoughts. All these thoughts are a mirage.

So you come to sit with me in the Silence. Be still. Know
that you are effortless, choiceless, Pure Awareness. Know this
deep in your heart. As soon as thoughts come to you, ignore
them. Let the thoughts come, let the thoughts go. Pay abso¬
lutely no attention to the thoughts, and they’ll disappear of
their own volition. But you try to change them, and the power
of them will become so much stronger. Remember, don’t try
to exchange good thoughts with bad thoughts, or bad thoughts
with good thoughts. Whenever thoughts come to you just
ignore them. Sometime in the morning, just scream it out at
the top of your voice, “I am effortless, choiceless, Pure
Awareness.” That’ll send the message home, who you really
are. And go through the day like this.

Be still! If you can only be still enough, you will feel this
unalloyed happiness within you arising. And you will just

become happy for no reason whatsoever. But it only comes
when you’re still, when you’re quiet, when you’re peaceful. Do
not be two different people, one who comes to satsang and is
quiet and one who argues in the world all day long with
people, and finds everything wrong in the world, gets angry,
gets mad and upset. Be one person. All pervading Conscious¬
ness. Be That.

Never allow yourself to believe that something’s wrong in
your life. Catch it before it starts. And say to yourself: “I am
effortless, choiceless, Pure Awareness.” Whatever comes up,
say that. Know the truth about yourself. God has no problems.
Neither do you. For you are That.

I know the teaching sounds absurd to most people. And yet
this is the teaching that has been propagated by rishis, sages,
since the beginning of time. This is it. This is your opportunity
to awaken. Why not use it? Do not let another moment go by
where you are believing and thinking something is wrong
somewhere. Everything that is happening in this world today
has happened before. Different times, different people,
different places. All of these things have happened before
previously. They have always happened in this world. This is
the nature of this world.

There are so many people who want a beautiful world in
which to live, where there is everlasting peace and tranquility,
where there is joy and abundance. Yet these things are
temporary. This is not the way of this world. It’s interesting,
when you stop thinking of joy, when you stop thinking of
sadness, when you stop thinking of good things and bad
things, again something wonderful happens to you. For you
are no longer attached to anything. Yet in this non-attach¬
ment, you feel love, and kindness, beauty and joy, in a totally

~ 156 ~

— 157 —

<zffitence cfr the (<pteazt

different way. Why not awaken now? Will you do this for me?
Wake up. Do me a favor. Stop playing these games.

Have mercy on yourself. Stop those thoughts that make you
angry or make you upset. Forget about the past. If you are not
the mind, not the body, how can you be the past? Never mind
the body, the individual. You don’t have to worry about the
past. You don’t. For there was never a beginning, there was
never an end. You were never born, you can never die. You do
not prevail. Don’t try to analyze what I’m saying or figure it
out. Just be it. When you say to yourself, “I am effortless,
choiceless, Pure Awareness,” this transcends the past, tran¬
scends the future, it transcends everything and awakens you
to the Self which you are now. Awaken to that Self right now!
Awaken to it! Awaken to it, right now! To your true Self. Be
still silly mind, let the true sun shine forth!

Now let us close our eyes for a few moments. Say to
yourself, “I am choiceless, Pure Awareness. I am effortless,
Pure Awareness. I am choiceless, effortless, Pure Awareness.”
And keep still and watch. Observe. Watch your body disap¬
pear, the mind disappear.

^rust in the <£Powez ^hat <S%nows the Q4Jaif

You see, you live in a universe which is self-existent, self-
abiding, self-sufficient. This means that all of your needs are
met from within. All of your needs are met from within. But
this will only happen when you accept it this way. If you think
that your needs have to come from a person, place or thing,
you’ve always got a fight on your hands because you’re hoping
to get a better job or get some money in the bank or that
someone will come along and help you with some problem.

denunciation

These are all erroneous thoughts. If you could only learn to
rely on the Self, miracles would take place in your life! If you
can only learn to rely on the Self. How do you learn to rely on
the Self? By trusting life. Trusting life just the way it is. I’m not
saying to trust certain people, or to trust certain conditions,
certain situations. I’m saying just to trust life. To trust life you
go beyond people, places and things. You trust the substratum
of all existence. You trust Consciousness. In other words, you
feel and believe in your heart that there is a Power that knows
the way. You came out of it. So you’re That also. For you are It.
You are that Power yourself. And you feel good about it. This
is what I mean when I say, trust the Power that knows the way.

There’s nothing to fix in your life. Nothing to change. Nothing
to accomplish. Nothing to do. Except to abide in the Power that
knows the way. It’s so simple, yet it’s so hard for some of us. And
it’s hard because we allow the thoughts to come to us and spoil
everything. You have to control your thoughts, control your
thinking. When you are free from thinking, you will always abide
in Consciousness, which is the Power that knows the way. And
soon you’ll find yourself becoming happier and happier every
day. Peaceful. Harmonious.

What can really disturb you and make you sad, make you
afraid? Only something that you think may happen to you. But
if you’re living in the eternal now, if you exist this mo¬
ment—and you do—in this moment is there a problem?
There’s no problem in this moment. It’s only when you begin
to think of tomorrow or the next week or the next week that
you think of problems. But if you learn to stay centered in the
moment where nothing is happening, this moment will
become the next moment. And the next moment will become
the next hour, the next day, the next week, and the next year.

- 158 -

-159

0 $nience of the (cpteazt

This is how to live, from moment to moment. But what do we
do? We stretch out those moments to days. We like to see the
future. We think something’s going to happen to us tomorrow
or the next day or the next day. But nothing can ever happen
to you unless you allow it. You allow it by believing it, by
thinking about it. You give it power by fearing it. But I say to
you in truth, there’s nothing to fear in this whole universe.
There’s no fear. Fear doesn’t exist. Only the Self exists. Only
the Self exists. Catch the meaning of those words. Only the Self
exists, and 1 Am That. That’s a profound statement.

^heze ©U Only One edkeaiity andf^fou c^Ate ^hat

All is well. All is well. All is perfectly well. Never forget that.
Do not think about it. Do not try to analyze it. Just accept it in
your heart. All is well, period, end. Most of us are here because
we want to become Self-realized. We want to experience
moksha, liberation, awakening. There are three points that
you should always remember. If you remember these three
points, you will be already awakened. You have to remember
these three points in your heart. By assimilating these three
points, by digesting them, by becoming a living embodiment
of these three points, you will become Consciousness, Pure
Awareness, which you already are.

The first point is this: WHATEVER BEFALLS YOUR BODY
OR YOUR MIND, REMEMBER THAT IS NOT HAPPENING
TO YOU. Whatever appears to happen to your body or your
mind, whether you have cancer, AIDS, the D.T.s, bubonic
plague, whether you are the strongest person on earth,
whether your mind feels depressed, disillusioned, or your

<3denunciation

mind feels happy or reassured, it is not happening to you. Y ou
have absolutely nothing to do with that. Makes no difference
what’s going on in your life. You can be materially relatively
the happiest person on earth, or you can be miserable, sick. It
has nothing to do with you. It has absolutely nothing at all to
do with you. This is your body and your mind, not you. You
are Brahman. You are Nirvana. You are the Absolute Reality.
The goings on in your body and your mind have absolutely
nothing to do with you. This is the first point.

The second point that you must always remember is that:
ALL OF YOUR KARMAS, YOUR SAMSKARAS, YOUR SINS
OF OMISSION, COMMISSION, THE SINFUL ACTS THAT
YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR, NONE OF THESE THINGS
CAN TOUCH YOU IF YOU CENTER YOURSELF INTHE HERE
AND NOW. In other words, the Here and Now is Omnipres¬
ence. The Here and Now is All-Pervading, Omniscient, the
Here and Now is Consciousness. The Here and Now is Bound¬
less Space, Effortless, Choiceless, Pure Awareness. When you
hold on to the Here and Now, when you identify with Here and
Now, the past is no longer valid. There is no past, there is no
future in the Here and Now. There is I Am. There is the
Ultimate Reality, Ultimate Oneness, and You Are That. When
you are living in the Here and Now, your karmas do not exist
any longer, samskaras stop dead in their tracks, sins are
abated, you are born again, so to speak. You become the new
man, the new woman. You are free.

The third point you must always remember is that: YOU
HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO GIVE UP. Nothing to
surrender. Nothing to let go of. You are already liberated. How
can you believe that you have to let go of something that never
existed? You believe that you have to let go of your attachments.

~160~

~161~

<z§ilence afj the (<pteavt

How can the Self have attachments? You think you have to
surrender all of your fears, all of your depressions, all of the
things that have been bothering you. Surrender to whom?
Those things are not yours. They do not belong to you.

You are Pure Reality. You are the Imperishable Self. Never
were you born, never did you prevail, and never will you leave.
You are the One. The All-Pervading One. Consequently, you
have absolutely nothing to give up. For you had never any¬
thing to begin with. It’s really egotistical to believe you’ve got
something to give up. There’s nothing you have to surrender.
It’s only the ego that believes that something has to be surren¬
dered, something has to be given up, you have to let go of
something. Who is the one who had something to begin with?
There is no one. There is only the One Reality, and You Are
That.

If you can remember these three points, by assimilating
them, by digesting them, by becoming a living embodiment of
them, that’s all you have to do. If you remember these three
points, you do not have to practice any sadhana. You do not
have to do mantras, or meditations of any kind, for you will
already be awakened. Again, it is the ego that has to meditate.
It is the ego that has to do sadhana. Are you the ego? Who are
you? What are you? Where did you come from? What are you
doing here? Where are you going? The answer to all these
questions is: I Am. I Am. I Am not this. I Am not that. I Am. I
Am That which has always been, I am That which will always
be. I Am That I Am. Am.

Your swarupa is Absolute Reality. You are not the person
that you identify with. The person who goes to sleep and
wakes up, goes through experiences, worries, thinks, frets,
sometimes happy, sometimes sad. That is not you. No longer

C ^Renunciation

think of yourself as that person. When you get up in the
morning, take a deep breath and realize the truth about
yourself. First thing upon awakening you can say to yourself,
I Am Brahman. I Am the Imperishable Self. Bullets cannot kill
me. Fire cannot burn me. Water cannot drown me. I Am That.
And rejoice in your true Self. Feel the happiness in your Heart.
Feel your Reality, in the stillness, in the quietness, when there
is no mind, no thoughts, no words. Who are you then? You
just are.

If I say anything else, it will be redundant. There are so
many words. So many stories. So many teachings. Yet if you
only remember the three points that I shared with you, that
will suffice. Why talk any further than this? The more words
you hear, the more confused you become. Actually, the first
hour that you sat in the Silence was the best time for you.
There are certain words, very few words, that you have to hear,
and then there is the Silence that you should always be in. It is
interesting that the words that I speak to you are really the
Silence. Those are the words of the Silence, Truth, Infinite
Truth, Reality, Consciousness, Bliss, Pure Awareness, Ulti¬
mate Oneness, all this is the Self. And You are That.

-162

163 -

3 oS

When you are without thoughts,
when you are without needs, without wants,
without desires,
then you are God.

You are the Universe.

You are Divine Love.

You are Beautiful.

04)hat qDs, ...

A devotee of Ramana Maharshi, who had been with him
about twenty-five years, had a son who died and he was grief
stricken. So he begged to have an audience with Ramana.
Now, Ramana rests from twelve to two. He agreed to see his
devotee. When the devotee entered the hall, Ramana was
reclining on his couch with his eyes closed. And the devotee
started to cry and tell him all his troubles, how much he loved
his son. And then he asked Ramana, "What is God?” Ramana
didn’t answer. He kept still for about fifteen minutes. Then he
opened his eyes and he said very softly, “What is, is God.”
What is, is God. It’s like when someone asks the question, “Is
the world real?” The world, by itself, is an illusion. But God, as
the world, is real. As we progress we find that there never was
a God, so there never was a world. But for the sake of talking,
because God is, the universe is.

Everything from the lowliest microbe to the fullest galaxy
is God in expression. Everything is God. Every leaf, every piece

-165

Silence of L the <^teatt

of clay, every star, every planet has no basis for its existence by
itself. Because God is, everything else is.

That’s what Ramana meant when he answered, “What is,
is God.” He was trying to explain to the devotee, your son is
dying, that is God. Your son is living, that is God. There is no
real difference. Only in your mind. We differentiate only in the
mind. If the mind were made quiescent, quiet, there would be
no differentiation between death and life. We make the
differentiation because we think. It’s a mental concept that
someone dies, and that’s bad, but someone lives and that’s
good. There’s no such differentiation.

There is only God. And everything that exists, everything,
is God. There can be nothing apart from God.

But then I say that God doesn’t exist, except in your mind.
That is the reason that, in reality, no thing exists. Do you
follow that?

As long as you think, there will be existence, person, place
and thing. But when you stop thinking there’s no room for
existence, because there cannot be the Silence and existence.
Everything that appears to be opposes the Silence. The Silence
is Consciousness, Absolute Reality, Sat-Chit-Ananda. The Self
exists as Itself, yet when you begin to modify it you say, well,
God exists. God is the first modification of Consciousness, and
it’s God’s job to create the world and then to dissolve the world
and then create the world.

Who gave God that job? Henry? Henry didn’t do it. Who did?
Why would God want to create worlds, universes, and then
dissolve them, and after a period of time bring them back into
existence? Yet, this is what we read about in all the scriptures.
This information is for the ajnani, for the man steeped in
ignorance. You have to explain to this man how the world

. S± .

became existent, or he will not be satisfied. You therefore go
into all the modifications. There is the Self and the Self is
Consciousness. Consciousness modifies itself, and you have
God. God modifies Itself and you have existence.

Ramana realized that if he explained this to the devotee, the
devotee wouldn’t understand. If he told the devotee that only
the Self exists and your son didn’t die, because he was never
born, it would be too much for the devotee to comprehend.
Therefore, instead, he said God is. What is, is God. It made the
devotee feel better, for he realized that his son was in God’s
hands, and all is well.

But yet, if we have a questioning mind, we question,
“Where did God come from and why does God appear as all
these things? What is Its purpose?” Most of us know there is
no purpose. No thing exists the way it appears. Your real
nature is Pure Awareness. Pure Awareness is the Universal.
There is no place for anything else. In other words, you cannot
have existence as it appears and Pure Awareness. Otherwise
you would have diversification, as the appearance shows you.
There’s a beautiful tree, there’s the sky, there are flowers, there
are animals, there are insects. If Pure Awareness or the Self is
self-contained, how could there be anything else? Where
would the room come from?

It’s just like space. When you have a room filled with
furniture what happens to the space it takes up? And then you
take the furniture out of the room. Has the space changed?
Nothing has happened to the space. The space is the same
whether the room is filled with furniture, or not. And so it is
with reality. Reality exists. The Self exists as the Self. But it
appears as if there are things in the universe, as if there were
a universe. There are people, there are animals, there are

~ 166—

-167

<^ilence the Q^tearl

planets. There’s the vegetable kingdom, the mineral kingdom.
All this appears as real. You therefore have to ask the question,
“To whom does this appear? Who sees this?” You know by
now it’s the “I.” The 7” is the culprit If it weren’t for the “I”
there would be no universe, there would be no God, there
would be no creation.

So Ramana couldn’t tell this to the devotee, because the
devotee wouldn’t understand. He therefore said, “What is, is
God.” The world appears to exist. The world by itself could
never exist. So the next step is to say that God exists as the
world. But I say to you there is no God and there is no world,
and nothing is as it appears. The appearance is called false
imagination. And whose fault is it? The “I.” Blame the “I.”
Whenever you make a mistake, say it’s the Ts” fault, because
there are no mistakes. It sounds funny because it’s true. If you
did not identify with “I,” no thing would exist. Things only
exist because you identify with your “I.”

Now, the grand secret is to follow the “I” back to its source. If
you really follow the “I” back to its source there is no God. Where
would God come from? Even as I talk about the word God, some
of you are still thinking about a figure up in the sky, an anthropo¬
morphic type of deity. Who created Him? It’s the same old
question: If God created the universe, who created God? There is
no verbal answer, for it goes beyond thought. You’ll know the
truth about this question when you quiet your mind. When the
mind is no longer in existence the answer will reveal itself, for
you will be the answer. Otherwise there’s no answer. But I can
assure you there’s no such thing as God. There’s no such thing as
creation, and there’s no such thing as the universe. So there’s no
such thing as the world. And there’s no such thing as you. There’s
no such thing as “I.” What is left? Silence!

. Ss» .

04)ho OOotshifjs

I realize that many of you are bhaktas, and I’m taking away
your enjoyment. I’m taking away your God thatyou worship, be
it in the form of Buddha, Krishna, Jesus, Moses, whomever you
like to worship. But I speak at many levels. As far as a Jnani is
concerned, it is virtually impossible for a God to exist separate
from yourself. But yet, such people as Nisargadatta Maharaj,
Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, and many other Jnanis did
bhakti. Ramana used to pray to Shiva in the form of
Arunachala. Nisargadatta also prayed to Shiva. So the question
is, why did they do that? And the answer is, for the sake of
others.

To get to the stage where God does not exist for you any
longer is a very high transcendental stage. I do not expect you
bhaktas to give up your worship. As you know, on Sunday we
have puja and we have chanting. To whom are we chanting?
To Hari, to Ram, to Shiva.

I must again tell you as long as you believe you are the doer,
that you are the body and the mind, do not fool yourself into
thinking you’re not. For if you weren’t, you wouldn’t react the
way you react to situations. So as long as you believe that
things are real, then you have to pray to God, because God
does exist for you.

You can call God the law of karma. In reality karma does
not exist. Yet how many of us have such reality? Therefore, the
best thing for you to do is to practice the Jnana practices, but
keep doing your puja. Do not give it up. If you’re doing japa,
whatever practice you have, keep it up. But practice Self¬
inquiry. And as you practice Self-inquiry you will notice
something very interesting happening to you. You will notice

~ 168 —

— 169 —

Silence (rfj the q? teazt

that little by little you begin to give up your worship, slowly
but surely, until the day comes when you become the object of
your worship. If you’ve been worshiping Krishna, you will see
yourself as Krishna, and so forth. If you try to act like a Jnani
before your time, you will have a lot of problems, for you will
develop an “I don’t give a damn” attitude, and that’s not what
we’re talking about.

I’ll give you an idea of how a Jnani acts. There was once a
Jnani who lived in a little shack on the mountain by himself.
He was radiantly happy. He was coming back from his walk,
and he saw some thieves breaking into his house. He crept up
by the window to see what they would take, and of course, he
owned nothing. There was just a torn blanket on the floor. So
the thieves started to curse, and one said to the other, “This
guy has nothing here. Let’s just take the blanket and leave.” So
they took the blanket.

The next day he intuitively perceived that the two robbers
were caught by the police. So he hurried down to the police
station to see what would happen. When the sergeant saw him
he said, “Come in. Are these the men who stole from you?”
And he said, "Yes.” So the policeman asked him, “What did
they take?” And he said, “They took my hat and my shirt and
my pants and my shoes.” And the two thieves started scream¬
ing, “What a liar this man is. He didn’t have anything. He just
had a torn blanket.” And the sergeant said, “Is this true?” The
Jnani said, “When I put the blanket on my head it becomes my
hat. When I put it around my shoulders it becomes my shirt.
When I tie it around my waist it becomes my pants. And when
I walk on it, it becomes my shoes.” Of course the sergeant
laughed and he said, “Shall I press charges?” And the Jnani
said, “No.” The two thieves became his disciples.

. s± .

The meaning of that story is, because you’re a Jnani it
doesn’t mean you don’t have compassion. A real Jnani has
more love and compassion than anyone else. But it’s not
attached to anything. And he’ll be the first one to run to
somebody s aid, to help somebody. It sounds like a contradic¬
tion, but it’s not. For while the Jnani carries a body, the body
becomes under the Jnani’s jurisdiction, and becomes an
instrument for good in this world. Therefore, you can never
judge a Jnani, for you have no idea what a Jnani is. You can see
a Jnani praying to God, just as ardently as a bhakti. Yet the
Jnani knows there is no God, but does it for the sake of others.

So when I tell you there is no God and there is no universe,
and there is no world, and there are no people, there’s only
Absolute Reality, do not take it too seriously. See where you’re
coming from. Be true to yourself. Do not fool yourself.
Whatever you re into, whatever you’re going through, if you
sit in the Silence and practice Self-inquiry, things will begin to
stir within you. Things will begin to happen. You will find that
your feelings change, your reaction changes, you become less
selfish, you develop loving kindness, you understand what this
universe is all about. And you’re at peace.

Robert, do you think that worshiping God, or believing in
God impedes realization?

On the contrary, worshiping God makes you pure. It makes
you pure enough so that you can follow the I back to the
source. Whereas, if you did not worship God, you would just
know everything intellectually, and you would have a hard
heart. Worshiping God softens you up, makes you mellow,
kind, causes you to become one-pointed, and lifts you higher.
So, by all means, worshiping God is good. But what kind of

170 -

- 171 -

Silence erf the (ypteazt

God will you worship? Worshiping God in the form of a
Satguru, or in the form of a Buddha, or a Christ, whatever, is
even better.

Why so?

For if you worship God without form, the energy is not as
strong. For what kind of a God are you worshiping? An
invisible God that has no form, no shape. Therefore you have
doubts. You’re not too sure. And the energy you send out is
not that strong. But when you worship God as form, you can
give that God all of your energy or totally surrender to that
particular deity. That’s the purpose of worship. To finally
totally surrender your ego, your pride, your body, your affairs,
your life, to that deity. And then you become that deity itself.

Is it better, Robert, to focus on one form?

Yes, of course. For you become one-pointed. It causes your
mind to become one-pointed. And then your mind becomes
your servant. And finally the mind disappears. It’s like the
sun. When the sun spreads its rays all over the place, it’s not
as powerful as if one ray of the sun moved to a certain place.
A fire would start. That’s how powerful it is. But when the sun
dissipates its rays they’re not as powerful. In the same way,
when you worship many deities, you dissipate your energy
and the worship is not as powerful.

Even if you think of them as more or less representative of the
same consciousness?

That’s hard to do. You can’t worship Buddha, and Christ,
and Muhammad, and Krishna at the same time.

...

/ thought you could in the sense of them all being the Christ
Consciousness.

So how will you worship them? How will you do that?

As a unit.

How can you do it? What will you think of?

The underlying consciousness that they all represent.

If you can do that, that’s good, that’s wonderful. But I still
think you’ll think of each one and dissipate your energy.
Whereas, if you have one, they will eventually all merge into
Oneness. In other words, if you worship Krishna, if you
worship Krishna correctly, eventually Buddha, Christ, Shiva,
everyone, will become Krishna. So it’s better in the beginning
to worship One. Then the whole universe will become that
One.

qHs <£Pewasive?

There was once a holy man who died and went to heaven.
He approached the Pearly Gates and knocked. God came out
and asked, “What do you want?” The holy man replied, “I am
your servant. I have come.” God said, “Sorry, there is no room
for you here. You can’t come in. Goodbye.”

The holy man sat down and started to gaze in silence to
ponder this. “Why won’t God let me in? I’ve been good. I’ve
practiced the scriptures.” He pondered this for six months.
Finally, he said to himself, “I’ve got the answer.” He knocked
on the door and God came to the gate. He said, “Let me in. I’m
your humble servant. The one who has chanted Your name for
centuries, who has bowed to You, who has prayed to You.”

-172

- 173 -

(^silence of the (jpteazt

God said, “I’m sorry, there is no room for you here.” Again,
he closed the door. This time the holy man became completely
upset. He didn’t know what the problem was. He had been a
good person, a holy person. Why won’t that guy let me in? He
said to himself, “I’m going to sit here forever if I have to, until
I come up with the right answer.”

Centuries passed and he pondered. Remember, he was
dead anyway, so it didn’t matter, (laughter) After this long
period of pondering why he hadn’t been let in, he paused and
asked himself, “Wait a minute, who is this I who wants to get
into heaven? Who is the I that chanted God’s name? Who
practiced the scriptures? Who am I?”

All of a sudden, he started laughing. The answer came. He
got up and knocked on the door of heaven. God came to the
door and said, “Who is this?” The holy man said, “It is Thou.”
God opened the gate and said, “Come in, my son. There never
was enough room in here for both Me and you.”

So it is with us. We claim we want to be Self-realized. We
don’t realize we are already Self-realized. We just have to let go
of the belief that I am the doer.

It makes no difference what you have done in the past, so
far as Self-realization is concerned. Once you know the truth,
you become free. The truth is, there is no past. There never
was a past. The universe has no foundation. There is nothing
to hold it together. Therefore, there is nothing you have done
that can keep you out of heaven, so to speak.

This does not give you license to go out and do evil because
it doesn’t matter, not at all! As far as you are concerned, as
long as you believe you are the doer, and the body/mind
phenomena, everything you do has to be accounted for. The
law of karma will get you. As long as you believe you are
human, you can’t get away with anything.

. 3± .

As long as you believe you’re a human, a personal I, then
there is a personal God. This is where prayer comes in. You
can pray to that God and you will be helped. Your personal
God will take care of you if you surrender and submit. When
you submit, you are giving up your ego. You are saying, “I am
nothing and you are everything.” This will help you. One day
you will awaken to the fact that the God you have been praying
to is none other than yourself.

How can this God be separate from you? Where would he
live? What would be His nature? You begin to understand that
"I am That.” You find freedom in yourself. You begin to see that
God is not within me, but that I am in God. What I had called
God is Consciousness. I am conscious. I am aware. I exist. I Am.
There is nothing else. You begin to see yourself as omnipresent.
You are no longer limited to your body or to the personal I.

Your job is to keep the mind from wandering. The mind
has to be held by you. Your mind is not your friend. It makes
you human. It makes you believe you are a body, separate.
When you see that the body is an emanation of the mind, that
it has no existence whatsoever except in your mind, you also
begin to see that the body of the universe is the same as your
body. It is a manifestation of mind. This brings the beginning
of freedom. Bondage begins to break up. You look at the world
and realize the world is the Self. I am that Self. There is
nothing else.

You have an idea of what God is. Can you imagine God
having fear? Can you imagine God complaining about how
things are going, or judging this or that to be right and wrong,
or saying, "I’d rather have this than that”? There is no duality
in God. The universe is ultimate Oneness beyond concepts.
The mind cannot comprehend it.

— 174 —

175 -

Silence of the (ypCeatt

Even if the word “God” comes after I Am, your mind is
playing tricks. Ask, “To whom does the word ‘God’ come?” I
Am will suffice. That is all you have to be. I Am. Everything
else is superfluous. Whatever idea comes into your mind,
inquire as to whom it comes. Listen to the Silence. Listen to I
Am.

Can I remember what you said?

There is something within you that remembers. Something
within you knows. If you sit still, put a smile on your face,
these things will come forth. That’s an interesting question. A
sincere student has an open heart, and the highest truth is
revealed. My words may sometimes not even be remembered
by the brain, but the Heart never forgets. And when you rest
in the Silence, you sit still, you remain quiet, somethingbegins
to work within your Heart as you become a living embodiment
of the Reality, of the Truth, of the Self. Always spend time by
yourself, sitting alone in the Silence, being quiet. Be still and
know that I Am God.

Many years ago when I was working, I seem to have spent a
whole day with my inquiry. One day I just did, and I didn't do
anything with what I did. In spite of myself, everything that
would have been a problem resolved all the way home this way.
And when I got home I thought I would lie down for a moment,
and I did. I turned around and that blazing attribute through
strength of intensity—the totality of it—absolutely frightened
me and I turned right back. I think I was probably not readyfor
it.

You have nothing to do with it, and you have nothing to say
about it. When it happens to you, it will happen totally and

176

. S± _

completely. You got a glimpse of it and apparently you got a
good glimpse of it. But who are you to say that you’re not
ready for that?

Well, because I turned around the other way.

You speak as if you’re an authority on God (laughter), that
you have something to do with it. When God is ready for you,
God will take you over completely. And you’ll have absolutely
nothing to say about it whatsoever. But that was a good
experience. If that happens again, surrender to it. Surrender
totally to it, and have no fear. That’s beautiful. Nothing can
ever hurt you. That’s all Bliss. It’s all Love, Joy.

That's what I mean by, can I really remember this?

It will remember you.

It will remember me? I had nothing to do with it.

No.

When you die what happens?

When you die what happens? What do you want to happen?
Who dies? The ego dies. The body dies, but you never die.
You’ll live forever. Nothing really happens. I know you’ve
heard all kinds of stories about going to different realms and

planes of existence. This is all part of the dream. You create
these things yourself. You create all these different planes. The
subtle plane, the mental plane, the causal plane. All these
things you read about in the Y oga text are of the mind. They all
belong to the mind. So you believe in these things. You go
according to what you believe. It’s all created by you. You

create your world after you die.

177 -

Silence of the (<pteait

But the ultimate reality is, no one ever dies and there’s
nowhere to go. You’re already Here. This is it. You are Eter¬
nity. You are Fathomless Space. You are the essence of the
whole universe. You are the sky, the sun, the moon, the
flowers, the animals, the insects, human beings; you’re
everything. This is your real nature. No one ever dies.

When our lady friend said she had this experience, then she
turned back or couldn't handle it, does that mean the mind just
can't handle all that kind of new energy or a new perception?
The mind can't handle it, so the mind has to be coaxed slowly
into accepting Reality?

No, no, on the contrary. All these experiences come from
the mind. Reality is Reality. And this is your very nature right
now. So what is there that can’t handle Reality, since it is your
nature? This is what you really are. The thing you’re dealing
with is the mind. The mind makes all these experiences up and
makes you believe you can’t handle it, it’s so much for you.
This is why you work on destroying the mind and inquire to
whom does the mind come? Who is this mind? What is this
mind? Where did it come from? Who gave it birth? And you’ll
experience there is no mind. Once you know there is no mind,
there is no longer the experience you’ve got to go through. All
experiences cease. But be aware that all experiences have come
from the mind. In reality there are no experiences. The life
you’re living now is an experience. The false life we all live, this
is the experience I’m talking about. It is all of the mind. And
the average person believes in the mind so strongly, that when
they seem to drop the body, they go forward in a plane of
existence that they’ve created for themselves out of the mind.
And then they come back and take on another body. It is all

from the mind. So rather than go through all these things,
transcend the mind and be free!

How long does it take to get another body to do it? Is that a
stupid question? How long does one, after they die before they ...

Why worry about this? Why be concerned about another
body. There are no bodies. Try to find out who you really are.
That you never were a body to begin with, and be free!

'frjoB ojs <B^Ul Cohere q$s

It’s good to be with you again. It is wonderful to be with
you again. I always enjoy coming here, for I feel there is only
One, and we are all that One.

There is only the One Brahman, the One Self, the One
Reality, and we’re all That. Therefore, I will make Our confes¬
sion. The I Am confesses to you. Not my confession or Henry’s
confession, or Dana’s confession or anybody’s confession. Our
confession. The confession is not coming from a person, it’s
coming from the One Self, it is the One Self.

Close your eyes. I Am boundless space, infinite like the sky,
I Am. Not a person, place or thing, but I Am. I Am choiceless,
effortless, Pure Awareness. I Am Parabrahman. I Am Sat-Chit-
Ananda. I Am Ultimate Oneness. I Am Absolute Reality. I Am
Nirvana. I Am infinite like the sky. I Am Absolute Conscious¬
ness. I Am That I Am. I Am. I Am. I Am.

There are some who want to awaken with all their heart and
with all their soul. Yet they always forget that they have to get
rid of the stuff that’s keeping them from awakening. The
concepts, the preconceived ideas, the dogmas, the belief system
that we’ve had for so many years. This has to be given up.

178

179 -

<£§Hence of the (jpteatt

We must develop loving kindness, compassion. If you are
I Am, then you must practice ahimsa, non-violence to any
living thing. For if you admit and confess I Am Absolute Pure
Awareness, I Am Parabrahman, this is All-Pervading, this is
Omnipresence. Therefore the trees, the animals, the moun¬
tains, the Universe, everything, is I Am. When I use the word
I Am, do not believe or think it applies to the human body.
There is no human body. The human body does not exist. I
Am Consciousness exists, and the I Am Consciousness is
everything.

Everything is holy. Everything is sacred. Do not believe that
some things are sacred and some things are not. Everything is
sacred, even man’s inhumanity to man, the dastardly situa¬
tions that appear in the world. It’s hard for the human mind
to understand these things, but everything is very sacred.
Everything is God. God is all there is. There is nothing else. So
how can there be an evil situation someplace and also be God?
This is duality. And we know and understand that duality does
not exist. There is only the ONE, and the ONE is everything
that exists. You consequently have to start feeling this in your
Heart. For your Heart center is Omnipresence, All-pervading.
It includes the whole universe.

There is nothing to be angry about, nothing to be upset
about, nothing to be depressed about, for the whole Universe
is God and nothing else. You are not your body or your mind.
We still make the mistake in believing that when you say I Am
Brahman, you’re referring to your body. Your body can never
be Brahman. The body is an illusion, a mirage. There is only
Brahman, only God, nothing else.

. M. .

Qidhat qHs Jy&havma?

We have to be in our own dharma. Dharma means the right
path. You are in your dharma now, whatever it may be, for
there are no mistakes. The dharma that appears that you’re in,
is the result of karma. This is why I always say you are in your
right place, right now. This is your dharma, this dharma to
totally transcend and transmute everything and become free.
When there is no karma, there is no dharma, there’s nothing.
But while you are searching, you have to be thankful for the
dharma that you’re in. Do not feel that something is wrong, or
you’re out of place, or you should be something else. I know
people tell me many times, “Robert, I feel so spiritual I really
don’t belong here on this earth.” (laughter) If you didn’t
belong here on this earth, what are you doing here? Why are
you here? As long as you are here and you feel that you’re here,
then you belong where you belong. This is your dharma.

There is an interesting story that illustrates this. There was
once a holy man sitting under a tree meditating. He had his
hands open and a female mouse fell into his hands. A bird had
apparently dropped the mouse. He felt sorry for the little
mouse and because he was a great siddha, a being of great
powers from his years of meditation, he turned the mouse into
a lovely young girl, and took the girl to his house. His wife was
enthralled with this. She was unable to have children, and she
was so happy to have this little girl. They both loved her very
much, and brought her up to be a fine young lady.

One day the wife said to her husband, “Husband, it’s time
for our daughter to get married. Where can we find a suitable
husband for her?” And the holy man said, “I know, I’ll ask the
sun.” So he went outside and he called the sun and he said,

-180

- 181 -

Silence ofj the cptearl

“Mr. Sun, our daughter is of the marrying age and we’re
looking for a suitable husband. Can you help us?” The sun
said, “Certainly, I will marry her myself.” How would you like
to get married to the sun? The husband was thrilled and he
said, “Oh! What great joy has come over me that the sun
would pick my daughter to be married to.” And he ran in, and
he told his wife and he told his daughter. His daughter said,
“No, Dad, I don’t want to marry the sun. There’s too much
light, I’ll be burned. Find me a different husband.” So the holy
man went outside, he spoke to the sun again, he said, “Mr.
Sun, our daughter does not wish to marry you because she will
be burned with your light. Can you think of anyone else more
powerful than you, who can marry my daughter?”

So the sun thought about it and then he said, “The cloud is
mightier than I am because many times the clouds hide me
and I don’t appear, and I can do nothing about it. So the cloud
is mightier than I am. Ask the cloud.” The holy man beseeched
the cloud and said, “Mr. Cloud, I have a daughter who is of the
marrying age, and I’m looking for a suitable husband for her.
Can you help out? Do you know of anyone who should marry
her?” And Mr. Cloud said, “I will. I’ll marry your daughter.”
And again, the holy man became overjoyed with this. Imagine
a cloud marrying my daughter, (laughter). This was a good
thing. He ran in the house and told his wife and then told his
daughter. The wife and the husband were so happy. But the
daughter said, “Chill out, Dad. I don’t want to marry that
cloud. For when it rains, I’ll get soaked. Get me a better
husband.” So, again, the holy man went out to the cloud and
told him the story, “Can you think of anyone else?” And the
cloud said, “Well, how about Mr. Mountain? There is a great
mountain here that is mightier than I am. Because when I flow

'od

around the mountain, I can’t go through it and I have to flow
around it. And there’s nothing I can do about it. So the
mountain is very powerful.”

The holy man beseeched the mountain, “Mr. Mountain,
can you think of someone who can marry my daughter?” And
the mountain also said, “Well, I will.” So again, the holy man
was very happy about this. A mountain marrying his daugh¬
ter. What could be better? He ran into the house, told his wife.
She was overjoyed. And he told his daughter. Again, she didn’t
want to marry the mountain. She said, “Come on, Dad, I can’t
marry this mountain. The mountain has cactus growing all
over it. And when we embrace, I’ll be pinched with cactus.
Think of someone else.” So the holy man went back to the
mountain and told him the story, and said, “Can you think of
anybody else for my daughter?”

The mountain said, “Well, the only one I can think of who
is more powerful than me is this little mouse that lives in the
bottom of me. Because he bores holes and has a nest inside of
me, and I can do nothing about it. And since he bores holes in
me, he must be more powerful than I am. Ask the mouse.” So,
the holy man went to the mouse and said, “Mr. Mouse, I have
a daughter of the marrying age, I’m looking for a suitable
husband, can you help me?” And the mouse said, “Yes, I will
marry her myself.” He was overjoyed. Imagine, a mouse
marrying his daughter. He ran and told his wife, and they both
went and told their daughter. The daughter thought about this
and she said, “Yes, I will marry the mouse. The mouse is very
cute. I will marry the mouse. But father, can you do something
for me? Can you please turn me into a little mouse also?”

So the holy man turned her into a little mouse, and they got
married, and they lived happily ever after in the mountain.

— 182 —

183

(salience ofj the (<p£eatt

Now, what is the moral of the story? I’ll give you three choices:

(a) Everyone’s daughter should marry a mouse.

(b) This was her dharma originally, for she was a mouse.
She had fulfilled her dharma and become free and liber¬
ated.

(c) Ifyou marry a mountain, a cloud, and a mouse, you will
have children that become freaks and you’ll be able to put
them in the circus and make one million dollars.

So which one is the right answer? (b), of course. This story
tries to bring home the fact that your dharma is what you have
to live out. If you try to change it, years will pass and you will
make all kinds of mistakes, and go through all kinds of
problems. Whatever your dharma is has been presented to you
by karma. Therefore, do not fight it. Bless it.

This is sort of difficult to understand sometimes. For you
have the impression that if you live in a condition that is
horrible, terrible, you have to stay there and not change the
condition. This is the ultimate truth. This is exactly what you
want to do. And you know why. For you have within you the
conditionings that are at the level of your experience. This
means that if you change your environment, or if you change
the condition, the samskaras and the conditioning that you
have inside of you will just put you back in that kind of a
position with different people, different environment, but you
have not risen from that condition. Therefore you have to
experience the same thing over and over and over and over
again.

We find this happening in people who get divorced, get
married, get divorced, and get married. They always think
they’re going to get something better. But they always seem to
have the same problem. Just new faces, new people, same

. S°± .

problems. So ifyou have a horrible marriage, or if you’re not
living with the person you love, do not try to change this, for
you have not changed yourself. Merely know the truth. Work
on yourself and never react to the condition. This is the
freedom you’ve got from dharma and karma. When you begin
to see the truth in yourself, automatically you will be picked up
by the Power That Knows The Way, and you’ll be placed in a
position or place where you are supposed to be at this time.

This is why I tell you so often, there are no mistakes. It
appears complicated to the finite mind, but you are in your
right place, going through those experiences that are right for
you at this time. Only if you are thankful and you bless the
position you’re in, do you become a higher being, do you lift
yourself up, and finally you find liberation. But it begins and
ends with you.

Never pray to God for release of your problems. Never pray
to God to change your life, and to give you something better.
This is wrong prayer. If you have to pray to God, pray to God
to give you the strength and the wisdom and the courage that
you need to be able to handle the situation that you’re in. This
is correct prayer. Do not try to change anything. Be yourself.
Work on yourself. Begin to see things in a new light. See your
situation differently. There are no bad things, there are no
good things. But thinking makes it so. Stop thinking of the
extremes, good and bad, right and wrong. Rather look at
yourself in the moment. Stay centered. See yourself as a Divine
Being, an Infinite Being, totally free and liberated. Do not feel
sorry for yourself because you are in a position and in a
situation you don’t like. This just holds you there more. And
again as we mentioned before, even if you run away from a
situation, you will attract some of the circumstances elsewhere.

184 -

- 185 -

Uen.ce (rfj the <^Ceatt

Running away is never the answer. Changing yourself is the
answer.

T ake a look at your own life and see if it is not true what I’m
saying. The changes you’ve gone through in your life. I know
so many people who have left their home and family and gone
to India to meditate, to find gurus, teachers. They have come
back very depressed, even suicidal. For they’ve given up
everything. Remember, there’s nothing you have to give up.
Only mentally do you give up attachment.

Always look at the world as a reflection of you. You are the
world. The world can be nothing without your approval. It
sounds strange, but true. You have to stop identifying condi¬
tions apart from yourself. I know it seems hard to do. When
you see the riots we’ve just had, the murders, the looting, it
seems really difficult to realize you are one with this. But think
about this. Why should you only think you are one with the
good things? If you are One, you are One with everything.
Never just the good things that you enjoy and you like and
bring into your life. You are All-Pervading, Omnipresent, and
you are One with all there is.

The correct way to observe this is to look at everything in
the world intelligently without any comments, without any
reactions. Do not be for or against anything. Train yourself to
observe, to watch, to look without any reaction. You may start
training yourself with the small things. Work on the small
things first. As an example, if you go outside and you have a
ticket on your car for over-parking, catch yourself reacting to
this by not reacting at all. Simply see the situation, look at the
situation, have no comment, no reaction. Pay the ticket and
forget it. Do not think this is good, this is bad, this is outra¬
geous, this is wrong, I don’t deserve it. If you didn’t deserve it,

. s± .

it wouldn t happen. Say you stub your toe. Instead of cursing
the chair, getting upset, feel the pain, observe it, watch it, and
let it go. Everything that takes place in your life, this is the way
you should react. Someone cheats you, and you’re thinking of
taking them to court to sue them. Think about this carefully.
Is this what I really want to do? And then your ego will say, of
course you do, you were cheated. Your business partner
cheated you out of $50,000. So you want to take this person to
court to sue them. Say you did go to court and you won the
case. You think this is good. But something will happen to
even it out again. You’ll have to go to court again and again
and again. Sometimes you will win, sometimes you will lose.
There are people like that you know. I’m thinking of a particu¬
lar woman right now who makes a habit of going to court at
least once a month. She is always suing somebody for some¬
thing. Sometimes she wins and sometimes she loses, and she’s
a nervous wreck. She’s not a happy woman.

If you begin to understand that everything is in its right
place, how can somebody do something to you? No one can
hurt you. What is rightfully yours, no one can ever take away.
So why worry? Why be upset? It makes life so much easier.
You start to worry and you become upset because in your
finite mind, in your ego mind, you’re thinking, “Well I’ve been
cheated out of $50,000, this is all the money I have. I’m going
to go to the poorhouse, I’ll become a homeless person,” and
your mind keeps playing tricks with you. Telling you all the
bad things that are going to happen to you. If you can only
laugh at yourself and stop thinking of those things, you will
find that you have risen higher in consciousness, and you’re in
control of the situation, and all is well. Never allow your mind
to play tricks on you, to play games with you, and tell you

~ 186 —

-187

<^itence ofi the (^kteait

about all the things that might happen. And then fear comes
in and you start running around, crying, trying to correct
things, trying to make things good, while you keep thinking
about all the bad things that are going to happen to you. These
things we are talking about are very important, for it keeps
you back from thinking of truth and reality. It keeps you back
from moksha, from liberation, for you are spending all your
time involved in the material world. I’m not saying you should
give up thinking about your business, or thinking about your
family, or thinking about things in your life. But make them
short and sweet. Think a couple of minutes about these things,
and leave them alone.

e? ebfe-Qfyncjuity and ^oB-Gplealization

And go back to your spiritual Self, thinking about who am
I? What is my real nature? Who was I before I was born?
Where did I come from? We’re talking about “I,” not you. See
I caught some of you didn’t I, for when I was saying, “Where
did I come from? Who am I?” you are going back to your
humanhood, to your personal self. Learn whenever you say
the word “I,” you’re not thinking about your personal self.
When you forget it, you are thinking about your personal self.
But when you remember, I Is God. I is Pure Awareness,
Absolute Reality. Even when you forget this and you are
involved in conversation, when you are using the word I, you
are thinking about your personal self. Remember to catch
yourself. Keep catching yourself all the time. This is how you
grow. This is how you mature. Never allow a day to go by when
you do not work on yourself in this manner. A situation is
presented to you good or bad, do not get excited. Observe the

situation, keep your cool. Realize the situation comes to me.
I am experiencing this. The personal I is experiencing this
predicament. Not me, the real I is not going through this, but
the personal I is going through this. To the extent that you do
not feel the condition or situation that you are in, to that
extent is the personal I not working any longer, and the real I
comes along. You begin to feel higher, spiritual, sacred. This
comes by itself. All you’ve got to do is to let go of the personal
I by not reacting to the condition, and automatically the real
I comes along, for you are really the real I. This is your real
nature. This is your swarupa, God, Brahman, Consciousness.

Can you imagine what would happen if you thought about
this all day long, without forgetting? Why, you’d be enlight¬
ened in no time. Now perhaps you can see the reason that is
keeping you back. Yourself. You are keeping yourself back.
Why? Because you are involved in the material world, in your
mind. Remember I’m not saying you have to give up your job
or not do things in this world. You’ve got a body and the body
is going to do things. But mentally, you have to not be attached
to what you are doing. Your body will know what to do and
will do everything that is necessary for it to do. Be your Self.

<zStand (^NakeB <^%efioie Jpo#

Again, what I’m saying is this. Every position that you find
yourself in, every situation that you find yourself in, with
whomever you find yourself, the positions that you have or
don’t have, whatever you may be in this world, is your right
place at this moment. Bless this, love it. I know it sounds hard
when you think of a horrible condition and you say, “I must
love it?” Let me explain again. The reason you love it, is

-188

-189

Silence afj the (zpCeait

because God is all there is. Try to remember this. There is
nothing but God. Therefore if you hate something, you’re
hating God which is your Self. It’s all coming out of you. You
are That. You must learn to trust and love your Self, your
precious Self. When you become despondent, depressed,
hateful, feeling sorry for yourself, this is what blasphemy really
means, for you’re feeling this way about your Self. Can’t you
see? There’s only your Self. If you think something is horrible,
you’re speaking about your Self. You look at a situation, you
watch it, you observe it, you never react, you leave it alone.
And then you’ll be given the power that you need to handle it,
to go through it, without thinking, without thoughts, without
any commotion, without any noise. These are the things you
must work on.

Be that Self. Never be frightened again by anything. If I can
make this perfectly clear to you, never allow anything in this
world to ever frighten you.

Allow things to unfold as they may. Remember, you just
watch and observe. Hold on to the truth. Happiness will come of
its own accord. When you hold on to the truth, when you do not
react to life’s conditions, person, place or thing, when you leave
things alone and you stop fighting life, you’re not giving up.

In the Western psychology we’re told you never give up.
We are taught to keep on fighting. But I’m telling you there is
nothing to fight. And the only thing you’re giving up is your
ego. Western psychology has never gone beyond this. There¬
fore, they do not know of life beyond this. Western psychology
works on the presumption that you are a body and a mind, so
naturally they tell you never give up, fight to the end. Stick up
for your rights. But in the highest teachings of the truth, we
learn that you have no rights. You’re giving up your body,

. s± .

your ego, your mind. And when this happens, you go beyond
psychology. Something happens that psychiatry, psychology
are not aware of whatsoever. And that is, you rise to a higher
dimension where there is happiness, peace, compassion, love
and joy, that is naturally yours. You begin to feel these things
instead of the things you felt before, prior to this, when you
were fighting life, when you were sticking up for your rights,
when you were trying to get even, when you were working as
an ego. You were never able to feel happiness or joy or peace.
Only sometimes when you won, when you got your point
across, when you won an argument, when you won a fight,
when you sued someone and won. You felt happy for a while,
but it didn t last long. And you have to go through it again and
again. But this is as far as the world goes. It doesn’t know
anything but this.

What I’m saying to you is, let go of everything. Do not hold
on. Stand naked before God, without any crutches, without
anything to hold on to. When you can do this, from this
moment on you will begin to rise. And you will become aware
that you are not the body or the mind or the world or the
universe, but you are effortless, choiceless, Pure Awareness.
You are boundless space, infinite like the sky. You have
become everything, and everything has become you.

There comes a time in everyone’s life when they have to
stand naked before God. By standing naked I mean no
scripture, no fancy words, no preconceived ideas, no spiritual
intellectual knowledge. But to be totally naked, in humility and
humbleness. Therefore when you can forget about your
scripture, forget about everything you’ve learned, and become
totally empty, you will then become full.

— 190 —

—191 —

ealization

There is nothing you can think of in this Universe
that can tell you what you are.

It is beyond words and thoughts.

You can never with your finite mind
understand who you are.

So do not try to do this.

It works in reverse.

It is when you actually stop thinking about who you are,
or wanting to know who you are,

And you stop analyzing, and you stop trying to figure it out,
that the truth about you is revealed.

It is beyond all of the thoughts and feelings
that you ever had.

It has absolutely nothing to do with you
as you are now.

It is the substratum of all existence.

You may call it God if you will.

Do not think of yourself as an
anthropomorphic deity,
apart from God.

Because God is, you are.

Therefore, what God is, you are.

There is no separation.

Awaken to this truth.

here c <3^0 < 3 Mistakes

Most people are home watching the presidential debates.
We ought to have Jnani debates, where all the Jnanis in the
world show up. Whoever shows up loses, of course, (laughter)

— 193 —

Silence crfj the ^piearl

If only people understood the first principle of Self-realiza¬
tion, which is simply this. Whatever is destined to happen is
going to happen, no matter how you try to stop it. And
whatever is destined not to happen will never happen, no
matter how much you try to make it happen. Wouldn’t it be
wonderful if the politicians understood this truth? There
would be absolutely nothing to worry about, nothing to fear,
nothing to conquer, nothing to win, nothing to lose. Every¬
thing is unfolding the way it should. Everything is in its right
place. There are no mistakes. Everything is lovely and beauti¬
ful just the way it is.

If you can only understand this in your own personal life.
What you’re supposed to go through in this experience, in this
incarnation, has already been planned for you before you
came into this body. Yet you have absolutely nothing to do
with it, because you are not the body. As long as you think you
are a body, you think you’re somebody, somebody important.
Or you think you are a failure, whatever you think about
yourself. If you would only turn within and see the one Self,
then you would never worry about what is going to happen to
you at all. For you would realize, there is no you for anything
to happen to. You are total freedom right now, total liberation,
complete Awareness. Yet, you do not believe me. You still feel
inclined to be a body, a doer. Think of the experiences you
went through today, and see if you do not believe that you are
a doer. How many times did you become angry today? How
many times did you feel slighted today? How many times did
you feel fear, or something is wrong somewhere, or you’re not
in your right place? This shows you that you believe that you
are a body. And as long as you believe that you are a body, why
not just let go and stop fretting and worrying about your body.

<^eifj-<^Jleaiization

The Power that knows the way will take care of you. The One
who makes the sun shine, the grass grow, the apples grow
perfectly on apple trees. The food that sustains us, nourishes
us, everything has been lovingly provided for us. Have faith.

Trust the Power that knows the way. This is a first step. To
have total faith and total trust in the Infinite, the One. You
may call this God if you want to. Makes no difference what you
call it. It is within you. It is without you. It is everywhere.
Always turn within. That is where all the answers are. Without
is a dream. Within is the Self. In reality there’s no real without,
there’s no within. It’s a figure of explaining this. You have to
turn within because you think you’re living without. When
you turn within, the within will eventually disappear and the
without will eventually disappear. Everything will disappear
when you begin to turn within. Yet when you awaken, every¬
thing will appear the same as it is now, except you will not be
a part of it. You will see things that you do now, but you will
no longer be fooled. The world will no longer fool you by
telling you this is right, and this is wrong, and this is good, and
this is bad. You will be finished with all this.

You introvert the mind upon itself. When the mind is
introverted upon itself, it disappears, for it never existed. But
when the mind is extroverted, then you’re alive and well in the
world. It comes with all types of experiences.

In school they taught you to be extroverted, to have an
outgoing personality. Well what has it done for you? It made
us all into a bunch of idiots. Look at the world in which we are
living. See what’s going on. Look at our figureheads. Govern¬
ment officials, state officials. These are all extroverted people.
We have been told that to be introverted is to be a loner, and
never get anywhere. Where do you want to get? If these people

194

— 195 —

Silence ojj the (zpteatl

only realized that the world in which they are playing is all
karmic. In other words, everybody is in their right place,
where they are supposed to be. There are no mistakes.

So these people do not believe they’re not the body and the
world does not exist. But they believe there are bodies and
there is a world and a universe. They should accept the fact
that karma is the ruler of the universe. And everything that
appears to be is karmic in effect. This is why I always say there
are no mistakes. For you are where you are supposed to be in
accordance with the law of karma. But do not keep thinking
about getting rid of karma, for you’ll have a battle on your
hands. You have to grow out of this and see that karma never
existed and does not really exist. So just wake up. Awaken.

Why not awaken to this truth? Why not awaken to the fact
that there is nothing that you have to become? There are no
goals to accomplish. You are to believe everything is preor¬
dained, and it’s been mapped out for you. Or, you believe that
you are just a victim of circumstance going through many
experiences to learn a lesson. It’s really funny to me when
people tell me, “something happened in my life, but I guess
that’s the lesson I have to learn.” Or, “that’s my karma.”
Forget about karma. Forget about lessons you have to learn.
No one has to learn any lessons. No one has to go through
their karmic experiences. Put an end to it all. Drop it all.

After all, for whom is there karma? For whom are there
experiences? Only for the I-thought, for the mind, not for you.
You are bright and shining. You are the Absolute Reality,
Brahman. Yet even those words are superfluous, redundant.
What do these words actually mean to you—Absolute Reality,
Brahman? They are just names that are given to the Absolute
Reality, to the Self. Yet everything has to go. The Absolute

^etfr^Xea lization

Reality has to go. The Self has to go. The reason it has to go is
because you re thinking about this with your finite mind. And
every answer you come up with is erroneous. Always remem¬
ber, the finite mind can never know the Infinite. It’s impossi¬
ble. And there s absolutely nothing you can do about it.
Consequently, the wise person becomes silent, quiescent.

Most of us have a mind set, and it is very difficult for us to
change this. This is the only thing that keeps us from seeing
Reality. As long as your mind is set, it is in accordance with
the universe and the world, and you see things as they appear
to be, but not as they are. You look out the window and you
see a beautiful tree, a beautiful sky, woods, a lake. That sounds
great. You look in the other direction you see rioting, man’s
inhumanity to man, destruction, earthquakes. How do you
reconcile this? Look at your own personal life. You have good
times and bad times, and it’s from this you know what you
want to experience. You want to experience the good times,
not the bad times. Yet what you fail to understand is, where
there are bad times, there are good times. And where there are
good times, there are bad times. You cannot have one. You can
never have one.

And to give an illustration of this, is the story of the two
frogs. Once there were two frogs. They inadvertently jumped
into a vat of milk. There was a fat frog and a skinny frog. And
they couldn’t get out. They were swimming around, the sides
were slippery, and the fat frog said to the skinny frog, “Brother
frog, there’s no use paddling any longer. We’re going to
drown, so I might as well give up.” The skinny frog said, “Hold
on brother, keep paddling. Somebody will get us out.” They
paddled for hours. Again the fat frog said, “Brother frog, I’m
becoming very tired now. I’m going to just let go and drown.

196 -

- 197 -

Silence ojj the (=pteail

There’s no way that anybody can ever get us out of here. It’s
Sunday, nobody’s working. We’re doomed. There’s no
possible way we can ever get out of here.” And the skinny frog
said, “Keep trying. Keep paddling. Something will happen,
keep paddling.” Another couple of hours passed. And the fat
frog said, “I can’t go on any longer. There’s no sense in doing
it, because we’re going to drown anyway. What’s the use.” And
he let go, he gave up. He drowned in the milk. But the skinny
frog kept on paddling. Ten minutes later he felt something
solid beneath his feet. He had churned the milk into butter and
he hopped out of the vat.

So it is with us. We go through so many experiences in life.
We think there’s no way out. We believe we’re human and
we’re caught in maya. We’ve got to go through certain experi¬
ences, and suffer, and be happy, and do all kinds of things. But
when I share the truth with you, that there is no maya, there’s
no universe, nothing is the way it appears. It is only your mind
that creates these conditions, and your mind doesn’t exist.

You don’t believe me. You want me to talk about karma
and reincarnation. You want to get into all kinds of facets of
the universe. You want eloquent lectures about how we’re
going to be saved. Yet there is no one to save. For no one ever
existed. Yet you do feel human, don’t you? You do go through
experiences, don’t you? If you’d only learn to sit still, to be
quiet, to stop reacting to the universe, to the world, to the
situations, to life. We give everything a name, that’s the
problem. We say this is cancer, this is poverty, this is an
earthquake, this is a million dollars, this is a new home, this is
a new car, this is a war, this is a dog, this is a cat. We have
names for everything. What if we forgot about those names?
And we stopped seeing things as something? What if we just

. <3 ^ety-^leaUzation

observed things, watched things, without giving them a name,
without coming to a conclusion? What do you think would
happen? You would transcend everything.

Remember again, why do you wish to awaken? Because
you re sick and tired of this world the way it is and the changes
that take place. Everything happens here. It unfolds. You have
happiness, you have sadness. You have good, you have bad.
When you awaken, you will never experience these things again!
You will be in total bliss all the time. And you will keep silent,
you’ll keep quiet. There will be nothing to explain, nothing to
discuss, nothing to prove. You have become the immutable Self
that you’ve always been. The mind can never know these things.
The mind only knows itself as a body, as a doer. Therefore, you
have to transcend the mind, transcend the thoughts, transcend
the world, transcend the universe, and enter the Silence where
there is total bliss and peace and harmony.

This is your life. You always have the freedom to make the
choice. You re always free to make the choice, always. The
choice you make depends on what you know. Right now.

Actually, the only freedom you have is not to react to condi¬
tions and to turn within, to see the truth. Everything else is
preordained. Whatever appears in your life is destined to be. It is
your reaction to what appears that matters to you, what is going
to happen to you next. It is your reaction to life’s experiences that
come to you, which determines what is going to happen to you
next, by the way you respond to it, by the way you react to it.

flight Tohh <&Moment^-ou <^ke totally <^tee

Do not be in conflict with your thoughts and the Self. When
there is no conflict, there are no thoughts. Thoughts only

— 198 —

— 199 —

Silence afj the (cpteacl

appear because there is conflict. By conflict I mean you’re
worrying about getting rid of your thoughts. You’re doing
sadhana, meditation, pranayamas, japa. All of these things
cause conflict. For aren’t you saying, “I’m doing these things
to become liberated. I’m doing these things to become free.”
These are the conflict, because you’re already free and liber¬
ated. Therefore, when you give yourself the information that
you have to do something to become liberated, there is
immediately conflict. This is the only problem you have. It is
your conflict. And this conflict comes from programming
when you were a child, from samskaras, from previous
existence. Things that you took with you, the habits that are
inside of you, that you believe you are. This is where the
conflict comes from. For it tells you, I’m just a human being.
I’m just a frail body. I have to suffer sometimes. Sometimes I
have to be happy. This is all a lie. There never was a you that
has to suffer. There never was a you that has to be happy.
There is no one in you who needs to be happy. There is no one
in you who needs to be miserable. They are both impostors.

So every time you try to exchange negative conditioning to
positive conditioning, you are causing conflict. This is the
reason psychiatry and psychology do not work. Because they
are trying to make you normal. Who wants to be normal? How
boring. The truth is, do not wish to be anything. There is
nothing you wish to be. There is nothing you have to become.
There is no future for you to become anything. Right this
moment you are the One. And there never was another. Right
this moment you are totally free, without thinking a thought,
without trying to make anything happen.

You’re not even trying to change your thoughts or stop
your thoughts. For how can you try to stop something or

^-(^Realization

change something that never existed to begin with? Can you
see now why you are in conflict? You’re trying to correct
something. You’re trying to become something. You’re trying
to do something. And something does not exist. Also, what
you’re trying to correct does not exist. What you’re trying to
change does not exist. You get nowhere. This is why I tell you
so often, leave everything alone. Have no opinion for or
against. Do not be judgmental. Be nothing and you’ll be
everything.

Why do most of you come to satsang? As long as you have
a reason, it s the wrong reason. There should be no reason.
There shouldn’t be any valid reason why you come to satsang.
For if you think back on what I’ve been referring to, you will
see every reason is erroneous. For the reason you’re trying to
come to satsang doesn’t exist at all. You say you come to
satsang to become enlightened, to know the truth. Who has to
know the truth? Who has to become enlightened?

You come to sit with me. You can always sit with me
wherever you are. I’m trying to tell you, do not look for
reasons why you do something. When you start giving up all
reasoning, all ambition, when you start surrendering all of
your so-called power, your human power that you think you
have, this is when the mind begins to slow down. The mind
will never slow down by trying to make it slow down. I don’t
care what method you use. When you are using vipassana
meditation, or you’re using breathing, whatever method
you’re using, you’re using your mind. It is your mind that
you’re still using. That’s whyyou can never get anywhere. You
must use your mind, no matter what you do.

Therefore, stop doing anything. I know many of you have
been practicing sadhana for twenty-five years, forty years.

- 200 -

-201 ~

C sentence ojj the (<pleait

Practicing many forms of meditation, going to teachers,
reading many books. And what becomes of you? You may get
a good feeling, then it goes away and you’re back where you
started from. The only thing that you should do or must do, is
not to be in conflict with anything. Do not be in conflict with
anyone or anything. When you’re not in conflict with any¬
thing, the mind begins to surrender itself and goes back into
the Heart, and you become your Self. This is the easiest thing
that you ever had to do. It’s simplicity itself. It’s simplicity
itself, because there is nothing you have to do. There is
nothing you have to become. There is no one you have to
change. You are That.

Do not analyze what I am saying. Do not even agree with
what I’m saying. Just be open. Open your heart by remaining
still, silent. Allow the thoughts to come, and try not to stop
them. Do not judge your thoughts, analyze your thoughts, or
try to change your thoughts, or try to remove your thoughts.
This will put you back in conflict with your thoughts. Do not
even observe your thoughts. Do not even be the witness to
your thoughts. Why? Because in reality there are no thoughts.
The thoughts that you think you are thinking are an illusion.
It is false imagination. Don’t you see, everything that you’re
thinking about is false. There is no thinker and there are no
thoughts. So why have you been practicing all these exercises
all of your life? It’s like a person in the ocean going in search of
water.

Awaken, be free, be yourself. You are the joy of the world.
The light that shines in darkness. You are a blessing to the
universe. Love yourself always. When you love yourself, you
love God. Forget about the past. Never dwell on the past.
Remember, time and space does not exist. If time and space

202

Iff eu /izatio h

does not exist, then there cannot be a past or a future. For the
past and the future is about space and time. And if there is no
time and space, there cannot possibly be a past or a future. So
who thinks about the past? Who thinks about the future? Even
to say the I does, the I-thought does, this again is mostly for
beginners. Self-inquiry is very important, don’t get me wrong.
But the day has to come when you go beyond Self-inquiry.
When you just realize and understand that there is no I-
thought at all. It never existed. Therefore you do not have to
get rid of it. There is nothing to get rid of, because nothing
exists. You are total freedom, right this instant, right this
minute.

r^£.eave <§)venjthinq <B^lone

Whenever your thoughts dwell on the past, do not become
angry with yourself. Leave them alone. Do not observe them.
Do not watch them. Do not be the witness to them. Just leave
them alone. They will disappear of their own volition, due to
the fact that they never existed. This is an important point.
This is the reason why you leave everything alone. Now if
things existed, if there were such a thing as negative thinking,
karma to get rid of, then you’d have a job on your hands.
You’d have to do all sorts of things to remove your karma,
your past sins. You’d be working continuously. Practicing all
kinds of japa, mantras, everything, to remove all of these
thoughts of the past. But I say to you, since these things never
existed to begin with, why do any work at all? Oh, it’s OK if you
like to work, but I’m very lazy myself, and the less work I have
to do, the better. I know it’s difficult for some of you to think
that you have to do absolutely nothing to become free because

-203 ~

^iience (rfj the (=p£eatt

you’re already free. For you’ve been brought up that you have
to work, work, work to get ahead. Why do you want to get
ahead? Ahead to what? To whom? Everything must change
sooner or later. Everything must dissolve and return to the
elements from whence they came. And new forms are always
being born, so to speak. So what kind of goals are you trying to
achieve? Your goals will vanish when everything else vanishes,
sooner or later.

Think how many civilizations we’ve had on this planet.
Many civilizations, and they’ve also passed us where we are
today. But where are they now? They’re gone. Dissolved into
the nothingness from whence they came.

So it is folly to try to improve yourself, or to try to achieve
anything. It is folly to try to change something or to become
something. Just Be. You may ask, how do I just Be? By asking,
you’re not being. To just Be is to just Be. Not to be this or to be
that. Or to try to discover how to just Be. Just Be, without
trying to understand what that means. Without analyzing.
Without pondering.

Just Be. Just Be. Just Be. Just Be.

t^MJho <=plecomes Enlightened 1 ?

Do not look for results. Because it’s your true nature,
sooner or later the results must presume themselves. But it
comes without your help. You cannot help God. God does not
need your help. Just be yourself. It’s difficult to be totally
honest with yourself, yet this is exactly what you have to do.
Forget about being a Jnani or enlightened, or having Self-
realization. I get too many calls like that. People are calling me
from all over the world telling me that they are Self-realized.

- 204 -

.. ^elfy-e^Tlealization

So now I just say, “Good, what do you want me to do?” They
want the confirmation. So I was thinking of printing certifi¬
cates (laughter) and mailing them out. “This is to inform you
that you are now Self-realized. Congratulations!”

It s interesting to note that many people throughout the
world are beginning to be attracted to Advaita Vedanta, the
non-duality principle. More than ever in the last two years or
so, many people who have never dreamed would be involved
in Advaita Vedanta are being involved in Advaita Vedanta.
Now the amusing and interesting thing to me is that a good
eighty percent of these people become teachers. New teachers
of Advaita Vedanta are popping up all over the world.

I received many calls during the week, and you’ll see why
I’m smiling when I explain it to you. Just this morning I
received a call from somebody in Texas with whom I have
been corresponding. And he told me, “Robert, I read your
transcript for a month straight like you said and I am enlight¬
ened now,” (laughter). So I said, “That’s wonderful. What
makes you think so?” He said, “I stopped quarreling with my
wife, I feel more peaceful, and I don’t give a damn about the
world, (laughter) But I have a question. What do I do now?”
(laughter) What can I say?

There are many people who are going around claiming
they’re enlightened, more than ever. It really makes no
difference to me, but it’s amusing. It’s interesting.

First of all, what does the word enlightenment mean? I’m
not talking about a dictionary definition. To the path of Jnana,
what does enlightenment mean? The answer is, there is no
such word. No one becomes enlightened. There is no body, no
I, no me, there is no thing that can ever become enlightened.
The word enlightenment is used by the ajnani, by students.

205 -

Alienee o$ the (zpCeatt

Absolute Reality, Choiceless Awareness, Sat-Chit-Ananda,
Parabrahman, those are all words that do not exist except to
the student in order to explain that there is a state beyond the
so-called norm. A state of total transcendence, and we give a
name to this: enlightenment.

When this actually happens or transpires in a person, the
I has been totally destroyed, totally annihilated. The me no
longer exists, and to that being, there is absolutely no one who
became enlightened. That being is resting in his true nature,
in nothingness, absolute nothingness.

No one can become enlightened. No one can be liberated,
for the you that thinks it can be liberated doesn’t even exist.
There is no you. There is no person. There is no human being
who is a human being one day and the next day becomes
liberated. There is only the liberated Self, and you are That.

There is not you as you appear. The appearance of you
which you think you are is false. This is why I say all of your
problems, all of your nonsense that you go on with, all your
worries, all your cares, all your emotions, they do not exist.
They never have existed and they will never exist. It is all the
game of maya, the leela. It doesn’t exist. No one in this room
exists. There is no you and there is no me. There is only the
Self. And when the self becomes the Self, it is no longer the
self. For there never was a real self to begin with. This is the
reason why I emphasize, stop thinking. Your thoughts pull you
deeper into maya, into illusion. Do not think of enlightenment
or awakening, or being liberated, or finding a teacher who can
help you. You are beyond help. No one can do anything for
you.

Actually what happens is this. You begin to realize you are
not your thoughts, you are not your body, you are not your

mind, you are not the world, you’re not even liberated. You are
nothing. As you begin to think this way, whatever has to
happen in your evolution will transpire without your doing
anything. If you are meant to be with a teacher, you will be
with a teacher. If you are meant to be by yourself, you will be
by yourself. Yet, you have absolutely nothing to do with these
things. Remain in the no thought state. Leave the world alone.
Leave people alone. Do not come to any conclusion. Do not
judge anyone. Everything will take care of itself.

The worst thing you can ever do is to search for enlighten¬
ment, for liberation. This keeps you back. It keeps you back
because there is a self that is searching. There is an I that is
searching. There is a me that is trying to become something,
and the whole idea is to remove something from your con¬
sciousness. Therefore, the process of realization is removal,
not adding. Removing this and removing that. Removing all
concepts and all preconceived ideas. Removing all of your
thoughts, no matter what kind of thoughts they are. Good
thoughts, bad thoughts, they all must go. And what is left will
be nothing—no-thing. You are that. You are that no-thing.

Doesn’t it feel good to be nothing, instead of believing you
are thoughts, and you are human, and you have a job to fulfill,
and you have a mission. There are many spiritual people you
know who think they have a mission. They have come to save
the world. They can’t even save themselves, and they’re
looking to save the world. The world will go on the way it’s
going on without your help, for or against. Leave the world
alone.

There is a Power and there is a Presence which I like to call
The Current That Knows The Way, that takes care of every¬
thing. It is all part of the grand illusion. And even in this

~ 206 ~

~ 207 ~

(Silence the (jpteati

illusion which appears in front of your eyes, there is a Pres¬
ence and a Power that lifts you up. It will lift you up as high as
you can allow It to. Until It lifts you up completely out of your
body, out of your thoughts, out of the universe, to a com¬
pletely new dimension.

You’ll appear to be the same person as always to people,
but you’ll not be that person any longer. For that person is
gone, no longer exists. You have become Brahman. You have
become all-pervading. You have become your Self without
trying to do so.

You must always have gratitude for the way you are. Do not
feel sorry for yourself. Love yourself just the way you are. By
loving yourself just the way you are, you will transcend those
things that have appeared to annoy you, to bother you, to
cause you pain. They will all go. You’ll no longer be aware of
them. Let go of everything. Have no desires whatsoever. Dive
deep within the Self. Do not react to the outside world or to
your body. All is well.

When you are without thoughts, without needs, without
wants, without desires, then you are God. You are the uni¬
verse. You are Divine Love. You are beautiful.

When you are aware that you are Consciousness, then you
are everywhere and you’re everything. When you realize
you’re everything, you become master of all. When you
become master of all, you can do anything you like. Now what
I just said does not give you license to go and do anything you
like, and make a fool out of yourself or hurt other people.
Remember how this goes. When you awaken to the fact that

208 -

<^el^-<^Aealization

you’re Absolute Reality, that you are Pure Awareness, that you
are Consciousness, then you become everything. When you
are aware that you’re everything, you become master of all.
Then when you are master of all, you may do anything you
please. First you have to awaken to yourself. You have to
understand your true nature, your swarupa. You have to
realize who you are. When you understand that you are
Consciousness, then you understand that you are everything.
For Consciousness is not limited to yourself, your personal
self. Consciousness is All-Pervading, Omnipresence. Therefore
you know you’re everything. You are the planets, you are the
trees, the leaves, the bedbugs, the cockroaches, you’re every¬
thing. The whole universe is you. When the whole universe is
you, of course you are master of all. And then you can do
anything you like.

But the paradox is, when you become that state, there is
nothing you need to do. There’s absolutely nothing you want
to do, for you are all things. When you realize you’re all things,
what is there to do? It is only when you are limited to your
body, or when you believe you are the body itself, then you
want to do things, you want to achieve things, become things.
When you realize you’re Consciousness All-Pervading, you’re
already those things. You’re everything in the universe. You
are the universe. The whole universe emanates out of your
Self. You then become God, and all the gods and goddesses
will come to you with folded hands. For you have become
That. So remember, I’m not giving you a license to do things
as a human being. As a human being you have to behave
yourself, be compassionate, loving, kind, helpful to others. But
as Consciousness you have become others. You have become
the epitome of compassion, of loving kindness, of bliss.

- 209 -

J

(^Silence ofy the (ypteaU

Consequently there’s nothing to do. Do you follow that train
of thought? If you’re everything, what is there to do? Every¬
thing is already being done and has been done. So you keep
still.

The question arises, “If everyone becomes free in this
world, how will the world function?” People always ask me
this. I have told you, do not concern yourself with this world.
There is One that takes care of this world. When you merge
with the One, you will understand this. So you do not have to
keep running around, trying to improve world conditions any
longer. Everything is as it should be. This is something you
have to comprehend totally. Everything is in its right place.
Everyone is where they belong, karmically speaking. There are
no mistakes. None have been made, none are being made,
none will ever be made. There is no past, there is no future.
There is only this moment in which you live. In this moment
ask yourself, “Who am I?” and see where you go. Remind
yourself every day that you are not the doer. You are not the
body nor the mind. Keep reminding yourself daily that you are
Parabrahman, beyond Brahman. You are Choiceless, Effort¬
less, Pure Awareness. You are Nirvana, the Ultimate Reality,
the Ultimate Oneness.

210 -

< ^he < ^loktee ^Jhtues

There are three main virtues that you have to acquire
in order to become liberated.

There are three virtues that are most important,
most importantfor you to achieve,
before enlightenment.

Every enlightened person on this earth,
everyone who’s been liberated has had these virtues.
You cannot be liberated without them.

The first one is compassion.

The second one is humility.

And the third one is service.

Compassion

What is compassion? Actually compassion is when you are
reconciled with this entire universe. There’s nothing in this
whole universe that you are against. Think about that. Com¬
passion means reverence for all of life, everything is alive,
there is no such thing as dead matter. Everything has its own
life. When you have reverence for life, you respect everything,
you have no animosity towards anyone or anything. I’m not
only talking about human beings, I’m speaking of the mineral
kingdom, vegetable kingdom, and animal kingdom, the
human kingdom. Have you ever heard of a sage or a liberated
person, who was at odds with anything in this world? You have
to come to terms with yourself.

211

Silence afj the Q?teazt

Too many Advaita Vedantists, non-duality people, go
around shouting, “I am one with this, I am one with that,
everything is Absolute Reality,” and yet they have so many bad
habits. It’s sort of paradoxical. So many times I tell you
everything is karmic, everything is preordained, everything
that has happened to you is preordained, you do not lift one
finger that is not preordained for you to do. Yet, at the same
time I’m telling you that you have to give up certain things,
and develop higher qualities, which is right. For you would say
to yourself, “If everything is preordained, why should I care
about what I do, how I act, how I live, everything is supposed
to happen anyway.” This is true on one level, but then again,
you have the total freedom to turn within and not to react to
life’s situations. You have that freedom. So, everything’s
preordained, and at the same time you have the freedom to
turn within and find out to whom preordination comes to, by
lifting up into a higher state of consciousness and becoming
free. Therefore, compassion is very important.

I use myself as an example. I go to lunch with many of you,
I enjoy going to lunch with you. But I do it out of a great
compassion, a great compassion for you, because this gives
you great pleasure. When I’m at lunch with some of you, you
always see me taking a handful of vitamin pills. Before I came
to Los Angeles I never took a vitamin in my life. But some of
you heard about a so-called disease I may have, so you bring
me vitamins and minerals, and pills and everything else. So I
take these things for your sake, not for my sake, because of
great compassion.

Approximately two years ago, someone came to my home
at about four p.m. one Friday evening, rang the bell, I opened
the door. There was this guy standing there with a big smile on

"T)he ~T}hiee ^Mztues

his face, as if he’d known me all my life. He explained he met
me once in 1958 in Bangalore in India at Papa Ram Dass’
ashram. I didn’t remember him. He also told me he came to
my classes in Denver in 1975. But he felt so good about this, I
told him I recognized him, I remembered him. He was passing
through, so he came to see me. He wanted me to initiate him
in Advaita Vedanta. I explained to him that I do not do
initiations, I’m not a guru or a yogi or anything like that, and
besides, you cannot get initiated into Advaita Vedanta, for it
is non-duality. There has to be the initiator and somebody
being initiated. There has to be a subject and object. And since
there’s no subject and no object, how can I initiate anybody?

But he didn’t take no for an answer. He started beseeching
me, he came a long way to see me, and I must initiate him. I
explained to him again that I do not do this, I do not believe in
this, and it has nothing to do with Advaita Vedanta. Why
doesn’t he go find a yogi or somebody like this who does
initiations? The next thing he did, he took out $200 and put it
down and said, “Here, initiate me!” I took the $200 and put it
down and shoved it back in his pocket and explained to him I
do not take money from someone I do not know, to be
initiated. Finally, he got down on his knees and grabbed my
legs and started crying, so what could I do? I was in a dilemma.
So I told him OK. I put my left hand on his head and my right
hand on his chest, and I said, “In the name of Advaita Vedanta
you are now initiated into Pure Awareness.” Now something
happened to him. It’s the first time I had seen anybody’s hair
stand up. It’s as if a surge of electricity went through his body.
And he stood up and smiled, and I was actually able to see
myself as him. He really had been totally transformed. And he
said goodbye and left, and I never saw him again.

212 -

-213-

Silence ofy the Q^teazt

Now, what is the purpose of this story? It has no purpose.
It’s just a story I add into this teaching, so time can pass faster.

I thought it was going to have to do with compassion.

No, no compassion at all, it had nothing to do with any¬
thing, it doesn’t belong here at all. It’s to make you see and
understand that you have to break up your linear thinking.
But to get back to compassion, you have to have compassion.
I did actually have great compassion for this person, but I
never use that word. It’s a word to make you sort of under¬
stand what it is, to explain all these things.

Compassion is very important. Think of the times in your
life that you could have had compassion and you didn’t. For
your thoughts interfered, and you came to the conclusion,
based on the thoughts that came to your head. For instance,
you see a homeless person who asks you for a couple of dollars
or whatever. It makes no difference why he wants the couple
of dollars, whether he wants to buy some whiskey, or he wants
to buy some bread, or what he wants to do. It is your duty to
help anyone who comes into your atmosphere. Anyone who
comes into your life must be helped. It is no accident that this
homeless person came to you. Do not turn him away, for by
turning him away you are turning yourself away. This is
compassion. Reconciling yourself with the whole universe, all
of the kingdoms, animals. We should have a great compassion
for every animal on this earth, whether they are ants or
cockroaches, or goats or sheep or cows. If we had a compas¬
sion like this would we eat meat? We have to have a great
compassion for the flowers, vegetation, everything that exists.
We have to have a great compassion for all of the minerals on
this earth, everything! This is reconciling ourselves with the
entire universe. This is important.

^he ^ohzee ^Diitues

Some of us wonder why we have been on this path for a
long time and we do not seem to make much progress. It is
because our compassion is not big enough.

<'Zptumility

Next we go to humility. Humility is very, very, important.
Everybody wants to win a point, win an argument, win a fight,
and yet if you have humility, it never comes into your mind to
win or get even. Humility is karmic. Karma is like stepping on
a rake and it hits you in the head; cause and effect. The cause
is you stepped on the rake, the effect is the handle hits you on
the head. This is our karma. Everything that goes around
comes around. You step on the rake, but the handle doesn’t hit
you immediately, it may hit you years later or another incar¬
nation, but you will get hit on the head. So there is immediate
karma, and there’s future karma. The only way to get rid of it
is to have tremendous humility. Say somebody slaps you. The
first thing our ego will tell us is to beat them up, slap them
back, shoot them, kill them, get even with them. But if we’re
wise, we’ll understand the reason we were slapped on the face.
And of course, somewhere, somehow, this is the karma
returning to us, and if we retaliate, we are setting new karma
in motion, which will return to us later.

Therefore, anything that has ever happened to you in any
area of your life, no matter how it looks, you are in your right
place. No one is picking on you, no one is trying to do anything
to you. No one is trying to hurt you. If you cooperate and do not
react and do not retaliate, and send out a message of love and
peace, then you transcend that karma and it will never come
back again. But if you retaliate and you try to win the battle, you

~ 214 ~

— 215 —

Silence crfa the (<pteait

may appear to be winning the battle this instant, you may
appear to be getting somewhere, but the fruits of your actions
must return sooner or later. Therefore, you are playing games
with yourself and you’ll never get anywhere; you’ll keep
repeating the situation again and again and again, with different
people, you may move to a different state, be involved in
different situations, but you will find the same problems.

Therefore, whatever seems wrong in your life, whatever
seems terrible, do not look at the problem in itself as a prob¬
lem. Rise above it, realize no one is to blame for it, you have no
enemies, no one is trying to hurt you. This is humility. You’re
not a coward, you’re not a wimp. You have risen above that
kind of thinking. That kind of thinking does not exist. That’s
why the story of Ramana Maharshi, when he went for a walk
in the jungle one day, and he inadvertently stepped into a
wasps’ nest, and the wasps started stinging him, he didn’t
even pull his leg out, but he spoke to the wasps and said, “I
deserve this, I invaded the house where you live and I deserve
what you are doing to my leg, and if you want, you can attack
the other leg.” When he got back to the ashram from his walk,
he was bitten all through the leg and had to put ointment on it.
But he wasn’t fazed one bit. He had a perpetual smile on his
face, with the realization, “All is well.”

Now look at your lives. Think of the things that bother you
every day, that annoy you every day, the things that make you
angry, that make you upset, that make you want to retaliate.
Get rid of this.

< 3 Service

The third virtue is service. Our mission on this earth is to
be of service to humanity. As you are trying to unfold, as you

~(>he 'Tihree Mrtues

are trying to raise yourselves to a higher state to be liberated,
to become totally free, be of service all you can, without
looking for anything in return. Serve everyone you meet. Ask
people what you can do for them to make their lives happier
and brighter. Be of total service to everyone. It is written that
the first shall be last and the last, first. If you try to put your
ego up front, and you want fame and name and recognition,
you will be beaten down all the time and you will have all
kinds of problems that come with achieving fame and name.

In truth you are not the doer, the body, you are not the
mind, you are total freedom. You are already liberated. But
this is intellectual with some of us. Therefore, practice these
three virtues and you will be amazed how fast you become
free.

— 216 —

— 217 —

^P>he (^fiout ^Principles
ojj (E^nana ©fylatga

Feel in your heart that...

(1) Everything, everything, is an emanation of the mind.

( 2 ) I was not born, I do not prevail, and I do not die.
There is no cause.

(3) Everything is egoless.

No thing has an ego or a cause.

No thing exists.

( 4 ) Have a deep feeling of what Self-realization is,
by negating everything that it is not.

Not this, not this...

QJision

I want to let you in on a little secret. There are no problems.
There are no problems. There never were any problems, there
are no problems today, and there will never be any problems.
Problems just mean that the world isn’t turning the way you
want it to. But in truth, there are no problems. Everything is
unfolding as it should. Everything is right. You have to forget
about yourself and expand your consciousness until you
become the whole universe. The Reality in back of the universe
is Pure Awareness. It has no problems. And you are That.

~ 219 ~

Silence crfj the (^teazt

If you identify with your body, then there’s a problem,
because your body always gets into trouble of some kind. But
if you learn to forget about your body and your mind, where
is there a problem? In other words, leave your body alone.
Take just enough care of it. Exercise it a little, feed it right
foods, but don’t think about it too much. Keep your mind on
Reality. Merge your mind with Reality. And you will experi¬
ence Reality. You will live in a world without problems. The
world may appear to have problems to others, but not to you.
You will see things differently, from a higher point of view.

I had an interesting phone call this week. Someone asked
me, “Do Self-realized people dream, or have visions?” Now, in
order to have a dream or a vision, there has to be somebody
left to have it, and yet, if you’re Self-realized, there’s nobody
home. There’s nobody left. So it’s a contradiction, as truth is.
All truth is a contradiction, it’s a paradox.

The answer is, sages do dream sometimes, and have
visions. But they’re aware of the dreamer. In other words, they
realize that they are not the person dreaming or having the
vision. But as long as there’s abody there someplace, there will
be dreams and visions. Even though there’s no one home,
there will still, once in a while, be a dream or a vision.

As an example, Ramana Maharshi often dreamt and had
visions. Nisargadatta dreamt and had visions. And they were
both Self-realized. But again, the question is, “Who dreams?
Who has the vision?” There’s no ego left, as long as the
dreamer is separate from the “I.” I can only speak from my
own experience. There’s no difference to me in the waking
state, the dreaming state, the sleeping state, or the vision state.
They’re all the same. I’m aware of all of them, but I am not
them. I observe them. I see them happening. As a matter of

^he (£Pzinci'ples

fact, sometimes I cannot tell the difference. Sometimes I don’t
know whether I m dreaming, or awake, or having a vision, or
I m asleep. It s all the same, because I take a step backward,
and I watch myself going through all these things.

So, for some reason lately, I’ve been dreaming about the
Queen of England. She was coming to satsang, I don’t know
why, for about three nights in a row. But I did have an interest¬
ing vision this morning, about four o’clock, and we’ll spend the
rest of the time discussing it, because I found it very interesting.

As many of you know, I have had a constant vision,
periodically, of myself going to Arunachala, the sacred
mountain where Ramana Maharshi lived. And the mountain
is hollow in the vision. And I go through the mountain, to the
center, where there’s a bright light, a thousand times brighter
than the sun, but yet it’s pleasing and calm, and there’s no
heat. And then I meet Ramana, Jesus, Ramakrishna, Nisargad¬
atta, Lao Tse, and others. And we smile at each other, we walk
toward each other, and melt into one light, and become one.
Then there’s a blinding light and an explosion. And then I
open my eyes. I’ve shared that with you before.

But this morning for the first time, I had a very interesting
vision, which I’ll share with you again. I dreamt I was some¬
where in an open field, a beautiful field. There was a lake
nearby, trees, a forest. And I was sitting under a tree, in this
open field. And I had on the orange garb of a renunciate. I
must have been a Buddhist.

All of a sudden, hundreds ofbodhisattvas and mahasattvas
come from the forest and start walking toward me. And they
all sit down in a semicircle around me, in meditation. And I
wondered what I was doing. Then I realized that I had become
the Buddha. And we all sat in silence for about three hours.

~ 220 ~

■ 221 —

Silence afj the (jpteazt

Then one of the bodhisattvas got up and asked a question.
He said, “Master, what is your teaching?” It was not in
English. I don’t know what language he spoke. But I under¬
stood it quite clearly. And without hesitation I said, “I teach
Self-realization of Noble Wisdom.” And he sat down.

We sat for about another three hours in silence, and then
another bodhisattva got up and asked a question. “Master,
how can you tell when one is close to Self-realization? How can
you tell one is about to become Self-realized? How does one
tell?”

And this is what I’d like to discuss today. How can we tell
if we’re on the path correctly? I gave four principles, which I
really never do in the waking state. I never have a teaching.
But I was giving a teaching, so I’U share it with you. I explained
four principles, where you know that you’re close to Self-
realization. Of course, we’re all Self-realized already.

Anyway, I explained these four principles to all the bodhi¬
sattvas and all the mahasattvas. Then we sat three hours in
meditation and they got up and walked back into the forest.
Then there was a flash of light, and I opened my eyes.

<£Pzinci / ple (^Number One

You have a feeling, a complete understanding, that every¬
thing you see, everything in the universe, in the world,
emanates from your mind. In other words, you feel this. You
do not have to think about it, or try to bring it on. It comes by
itself. It becomes a part of you. The realization that everything
you see, the universe, people, worms, insects, the mineral
kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, your body, your mind,
everything that appears, is a manifestation of your mind. You

. <s£ out <£Ptincipks

have to have that feeling, that deep understanding, without
trying to.

So you ask yourself, “What do I think about all day long?”
Of course, if you fear something, if you worry, if you believe
something is wrong somewhere, if you think you’re suffering
from lack or limitation, or sickness, anything, then you’re out
of it completely, because you’re not understanding that all
these things are simply a manifestation of your own mind.
And if you worry about these things you become attached to
false imagination. That’s called false imagination. You’ve been
attached to habit-energy for many years, and all these attach-
ments and beliefs come from habit-energy.

Everything your senses show you is an emanation of the
mind. You’re projecting a picture, just like you project a
moving picture, and everything you see right now, in this
room, comes from your mind. You may say, “How can we
collectively see the same thing?” That’s because of the habit-
energy that we’re brought up in. So collectively we seem to be
seeing the same thing, the same picture.

It s like watching a TV show and becoming one of the
characters, when you know that you’re not even in the TV. But
you believe you’re one of the characters in the TV show. So it
is with the world. Do not get involved. I don’t mean you
become passive. I mean your body does what it’s supposed to
do. Remember, your body came to this earth to do something.

It will do something without your knowledge. It’ll take care of
itself. Don’t worry. But do not identify your body with your¬
self. They’re different. Your body is not yourself. And I’ll prove
this.

When you refer to your body, what do you say? Don’t you
say “my body”? Who is this “my” you’re referring to? You say

~ 222 ~

~ 223 ~

(salience crfj the (<pteml

“my finger,” “my eye.” Who are you referring to? You couldn’t
be talking about your body, because you’re saying it’s “my”
body, like you own it. Who owns it? This proves to yourself
that you’re not your body. So do not identify yourself with the
body and the world.

Therefore, the first principle, to see how close you are to
Self-realization is: You are not feeling that you are identified
with the world. You’re separate. And you’re feeling happiness,
because your natural state is pure happiness. Once you
identify with worldly things, you spoil it. The happiness
disappears, it dissipates. But when you’re separate from
worldly things, happiness is automatic. Beautiful, pure
happiness. It comes by itself. So that’s the first principle.

Think about that! Everything in this universe, person, place
or thing, everything, your body, your thoughts, creation, God,
everything you can think about, everything, and I mean
everything, is a projection of your mind. If you really under¬
stand this, how can you have a problem?

But you may say, "Well, my rent’s due on the first, and I
don’t have any money, so how can this help me?” You would
be amazed at what it does for you. Do the trees lack for leaves?
Do the flowers fail to bloom? If you could realize the truth, that
everything is an emanation of your mind, you would become
your Self, and your Self is Omnipresence. It includes every¬
thing for the survival of your body. Think about that. Your
body comes from your mind. But as long as you believe your
body is yourself, and you understand that it comes out of your
mind, it will be provided for, just like leaves are provided for
the trunk of the tree.

So this teaching is quite predictable, and it can be used to
improve your humanhood, not by trying to improve your

~224~

c^/’Out ^Principles

humanhood directly. That s where you’ve got problems. But
by forgetting about your humanhood, and realizing everything
is a mental projection, again, what happens? When you realize
that the whole universe is a manifestation of your mind, you
become Omnipresence. And in the Omnipresence is contained
all of your needs, and all of your needs are met from within.
But, when you start worrying or thinking about it, you spoil it.
Then you have to do human things to take care of you. But if
you leave the humanhood alone, and go back to the under¬
standing that it’s all in your mind, you automatically let go of
your mind and the Self takes over, bringing the right people
into your life, the right situation, the right address.

Remember again, your body came to this earth because of
karma. And it’s going to go through whatever it has to go
through. But you’ve got absolutely nothing to do with that,
because you are not your body. But if you think about it, you
spoil it. Subsequently, allow your body to do whatever it came
here to do. Do not interfere. Do not fight. Simply observe. Do
not react. You will be OK.

See, the secret is to think about these things as soon as you
open your eyes in the morning. As soon as you open your eyes,
what do you think about? You think about food, you think
about your day, you think about work, you think about
money, you think about friends, relationships, but you do not
think about your mind being a projection of all the things that
happen. Therefore, you have to think about the right things in
the morning as soon as you awaken. Don’t wait.

How do you work with these principles? As soon as you open
your eyes in the morning—I’ll speak in the first person—you
have to say to yourself, “I feel and realize and understand that
everything, everything—say everything twice—is a projection

—225—

(salience afj the (£)tearA

^he <^>out (^Principles

of my mind.” Think about what that means. Forget about the
other three. Work on that. “I feel that, I realize that, I under¬
stand that everything is a projection of my mind.”

Then you may think about any problems, if you have any,
and you say to yourself, “If everything is a projection of my
mind, where do these problems come from?” You then realize,
“Why, they came from me. I projected them. I created them.”
Then you say, “Who is this I that created them?” Now you’re
getting to the meaty part, to the substance. “Who is the I that
created all this illusion in my life? Where did the I come from?
Who gave it birth? My mind. Where did my mind come from?
The I. They’re both the same. The I and my mind are the
same.” It’s a revelation. You think along these lines. “Where
did the mind/I come from and to whom does it come?” You
follow it deep, deep within yourself, and if you do it correctly,
you will realize there is no I. There is no mind, so there are no
problems. It will be over, and you will start laughing. You will
actually start laughing at yourself. You’ll start to think, “I fear
this and I fear that.” Once you get in that consciousness,
something will happen to actually physically relieve you of that
problem, or what you think is a problem.

As long as you believe in your mind that there’s a
problem—whether it is little or big doesn’t matter, they’re
both the same—as long as you believe you’ve got a problem,
you’ll have a problem and it will grow and you can’t change it.
It may appear that you change it, but it turns into something
else of a worse nature when you try to work with the problem
itself. You never try to work with the problem, but ask where
the problem came from. That’s the problem. The birth is the
problem. Because you believe you were born, you have the
problem, and you can go on and on and on.

That’s how you work with the principles. I feel, I under¬
stand, that everything, everything, is a projection, a manifesta¬
tion of my mind. Whose mind? My mind. Whose mind? Mine.
My mind. Who am I who has this problem? And as you ask
yourself this question, you will begin to feel better and better
and better. You will actually begin to feel better, and as you
begin to feel better, the problem becomes less and less
important, and it will vanish. This is great psychotherapy. It
works. If psychiatrists gave this to patients, they wouldn’t have
to give them any drugs.

It should be like second nature to you. When it’s second
nature to you, then you’re going to find true happiness in your
life, and reach your goals. But when you have to think about it
first, it means your mind’s impressed with something else.
You’ve got other thoughts that you’re thinking about most of
the time. The first principle, again, is that everything, and I
mean everything, the universe, the world, your body, your
fears, your problems, your happiness, everything that you can
think about, everything that your senses behold, is a manifes¬
tation of your mind. It’s a mind quality. When you close your
eyes, it goes away. When you sleep you transcend it. But when
you are awake, the world exists. The world only exists because
your mind exists, and your mind exists because your ego
exists.

Therefore, when you begin to work on yourself, and you
begin to realize that everything comes from your mind, you
stop fearing, and you stop worrying, for you realize it’s of the
mind. And as you begin to change your mind, transcend your
mind, annihilate your mind, bliss, happiness, peace, love, joy,
truth, come all by themselves. It is the mind that is your
enemy.

~ 226 ~

-221 ~

Silence the Q?Ceait

What is your mind? It is a conglomeration of thoughts
about the past and the future. You worry about the past, and
you worry about the future. That’s all your mind is. It is not
your friend. Therefore, ignore your mind. Do not believe what
it says. Simply watch it, behold it, become the witness to it. But
just to realize that everything is an emanation of your mind,
that alone sets you free.

So, again, I ask you, “What do you remember?” You
remember your personal problems, you remember your
needs, and you think you’re human. You think about the body
continuously. That’s why there is trouble with Self-realization.
So you’ve got to investigate your mind, and watch it all the
time. See what it’s doing to you. Watch how it controls you. It
makes you emotional, it makes you believe something is
wrong. It makes you angry. All these things come from the
mind. The idea is to be aware of this. The awareness alone
leads you to the light; just being aware of that, alone. You don’t
have to know any book knowledge. Just be aware of what your
mind really is.

That’s how you conquer your mind. By being aware of it,
and no longer responding to it. No longer to react to the mind.
Something that usually makes you angry, before you would
respond, and you’d want to win the argument, but now your
reaction is no reaction. You simply smile and you watch. When
your mind sees there’s no response, it will become weaker and
weaker, until it disappears. It’s just like arguing with a person.
What happens ifyou stop arguing? The person goes away. They
don’t know what to think. They just won’t have anything to do
with you. They just leave. So when you stop responding to your
thoughts, your mind will go away, and become weaker, and
weaker, and weaker, until there is no mind.

^>he <sfiouz (£Pvinci^les

You understand, you feel, that everything is an emanation
of your mind or it wouldn’t exist. All existence, from the
smallest nothing to the greatest cosmic galaxy—it all comes
out of your mind. However, even if I tell you this, you still feel
that something is real, don’t you? You feel that something is
real. You may say the sun is real. You may say that God is real.
You may say that an atom is real, but you do not comprehend
that you are creating these things. They’re all a projection of
your mind. If you didn’t have a mind, you would not have
these concepts. That’s why we have to annihilate the mind, to
kill the mind. No mind, no concepts.

And you have to practice Self-inquiry, by realizing every¬
thing comes out of your mind, asking yourself, “What is my
mind? Where did it come from?” And you will realize that “I” is
the mind, “I” is also the mind! Because you say, “I think,” don’t
you see? “I think,” and the mind is thoughts. So we get back to
the “I” again. We always come back to the “I.” Subsequently
again, ifyou want to remove your mind, you remove the “I.”
You ask yourself again, “If the mind is I, then where did I come
from? What is the source of this I? Who am I?” You always get
back to the “I.” Everything leads to the same thing, doesn’t it?
All the processes we use lead to the same thing. To “I.”

The first principle: The whole universe is a projection of my
mind. Then you say, “My mind. Who is ‘my’? I’m referring to
‘my’ mind.” And then again you tell yourself, “I am referring.
I’m back to T again. I am referring to my mind.” Again you go
back to, “Where did this ‘I’ come from? Who created it? What
is its source? Who gave it birth?” And you keep questioning this
way, again, and again, and again. And, as I said before, with
most people, one day there will be like an explosion, and the “I”
will blow itself to pieces. And you’ll see light, tremendous light.

~ 228 ~

■ 229 ~

Silence of the ofteait

You’ll become light. The light of a thousand suns. But that’s
not the answer. You have to go through the light, into Empti¬
ness, into Nirvana, into Absolute Reality, which is called
Parabrahman, Nothingness.

That Nothingness becomes Everything.

^Principle (^Number Pjwo

You have to have a strong feeling, a deep realization, that
you are unborn. You are not born, you do not experience a life,
and you do not disappear, you do not die. You are not born,
you have no life, and you do not die. You have to feel this, that
you are of the unborn. Do you realize what this means? There
is no cause for your existence. There is no cause for your
suffering. There is no cause for your problems.

Some of you still believe in cause and effect. This is true in
the relative world, but in the world of reality there is no cause.
Nothing has ever been made. Nothing has ever been created.
There is no creation. I know it’s hard to comprehend. How do
I exist if I was not born, I have no life, and I do not disappear
in old age? You exist as I Am. You have always existed and you
will always exist. You exist as Pure Intelligence, as Absolute
Reality. That is your true nature. You exist as Sat-Chit-
Ananda. You exist as Bliss Consciousness, but you do exist.
You exist as Emptiness, as Nirvana, but you do exist. So don’t
worry about being non-existent. But you do not exist as the
body. You do not exist as person, place or thing. Do you feel
that? If you have a strong feeling about that, then you’re close
to Self-realization.

Now go to the second principle and work on it just like the
first. The second principle is: I perceive, I feel, I understand

"p)he (Zp’OUt ^principles

that I was never born. I am Unborn. I do not prevail. My
existence does not exist, and I will never disappear.

Can you say I perceive or understand that I am unborn
before the mindfully accepts it?

Whatever you can work with to let yourself know that you
perceive or understand or feel.

Would it be more honest to say I am beginning to perceive?

There is no beginning. You can say, “There is something
within me that perceives, or there is something within me that
knows I was never born, I do not prevail, and I will never
disappear. I am that one that knows. Start working on that.

What does this “I was never born” mean? I am unborn. It
sounds like a contradiction because you believe your father
and mother gave you birth. This appears to be true. Who gave
them birth? My grandmother and grandfather. It goes all the
way back. Who gave them birth? You go back to the beginning,
way to the first man and woman and where did they come
from? Who started this? Who started the human race? Who
started the idea of birth? Now don’t answer, because the mind
will create answers, Adam and Eve, God. Somebody told you
that. But is it true? Where did God come from?

Go back to the beginning. It is like asking what came first, the
chicken or the egg? The tree or the seed? The man or the woman?
Who made them? You will realize they don’t exist. Nothing gave
you birth. The whole origin of birth is false, it is a dream. It does
not exist. Therefore, I do not exist the way I appear to be.

Then go back to the first premise. Who am I? You always go
back to Self-inquiry. Who am I that exists? If I am not the
body, am I my thoughts? I can’t be my thoughts because they

230 -

-231

Silence ofl the (*p£eazt

keep changing and changing. Then who am I? Keep silent for
a while. You know it’s working when you start to feel a quiet,
loving feeling. You start to feel a peace you have not felt
before. You start to feel that all is well.

If you do this often enough, you will feel a happiness you
never felt before, and you won’t care if a bomb is dropped on
your head. You would feel this happiness because you would
know you can’t die. Right now these are just words. You will
actually know, some day, that you can’t disappear. Nothing can
kill you. Kill is just a word. It means something that you have
accepted. We make up words and put feelings behind them.
Listen to the word, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill. It sounds ridiculous. The
word itself has no power except the power you give it yourself.

When the mind is silent, then reality comes of its own
accord. When you are thinking and thinking, the world has got
you and you become worldly again. Self-inquiry causes the
mind to be quiet.

After you work on that, you go on saying, “I do not
prevail.” You say to yourself, “You mean that my entire
existence since I was a baby until I die, means nothing?” Then
you say to yourself, “I have just proven I was not bom. If I was
never bom, how can I prevail? What prevails? Who prevails?”
You will see that it is the mind that prevails. The mind wants
existence, wants strength, wants power. It makes you believe
you are the body. Ask yourself, “To whom comes the mind?
Who gave it birth? What is its source?” then keep still. You will
begin to laugh because you will begin to feel, even if only for a
moment, that there is no mind. You will actually feel no-mind.
In the beginning it may last for a moment or two. As you
practice every day, those moments of no-mind will become
even greater.

^T)he (^J’Our (£Pzinci^les

Go on and say, “I will never disappear.” Now you laugh
again, because you realize that which never existed disappears.
I am no-mind, so how can I disappear? This becomes very
meaningful for you and as you do it every day, you become
stronger and stronger in mindfulness, and something happens
that’s so beautiful that I can’t describe it. You feel such love,
such joy, such harmony, such bliss. Then you carry on.

Have a deep feeling, and a realization, that you are unborn,
that you do not prevail, and you will never disappear. You will
never die. Think about that. Just to think to yourself that you are
unborn. There’s no cause for your birth. Cause doesn’t exist.
There’s no reason for your birth. You never are born. And as far
as your existence is concerned, it’s not there. You do not prevail
from birth to death. There is nothing going on. Absolute nothing.
And you do not get older, you do not disappear, or you do not
die. Think about that. How free you’ll become when you under¬
stand what this means. It’s a beautiful feeling to know that you
were never bom, that you’ve always existed, but not the way you
think you are. Your life as it is right now, whatever you think
you’re doing, however important it may be to you, is totally
meaningless. Why? Because it’ll be gone soon. So whatever you’re
getting into, whatever excites you, is only for a time.

Take Elvis Presley. People still remember him. But will
anybody remember him five hundred years from now? Take
your great classical musicians, concertos, Bach, Schubert,
Rachmaninoff, everybody else; they’re important to you right
now, but five hundred years from now nobody will remember
them at all. Everything will be so different it’ll be like you’re in
another universe.

So the point is, if you get too involved in those things,
you’re missing the mark, because you’re not understanding

~ 232 ~

~ 233 ~

(sfdjtence (rjj the ofteati

~T)he (sjhouz (£Pzincij)ies

your real nature. You’re not understanding who you really are.
You should be searching for the meaning to yourself. And
spending eighty percent of the time doing that. I know it’s not
easy to do for some people, because they seem to be involved
in life. But yet, you can do it. It doesn’t matter. You don’t have
to set aside a time for meditation. You can do it while you’re
driving your car, while you’re at work, while you’re playing
music. Just be aware of yourself, of who you really are, and
realize the rest is a projection of your mind. We’re not born.
We have no existence. In between the time we’re born and
when we die we really have no existence. And we do not die.
There’s no disappearance. To be aware of these truths sets you
free. Just to be aware of them.

So how would you summarize it? That we are non-existent,
or that we have no beginning and no end?

Both are right. We have no cause.

So you’re saying that existence implies a relative cause, and
existence only takes place in a relative world, and we’re not
really a part of that.

Yes, exactly.

And non-existence?

Non-existence also does not exist.

But then couldn ’tyou say the mind doesn’t exist? I mean you
say that everything that exists...

Nothing that you can explain exists.

But earlier you said that everything emanates from the mind.

Yes, you’re projecting the picture.

But then you have a mind.

You don’t have a mind.

/ think he means everything in the earth plane world.

In the relative world. In reality there’s no mind. That’s how
the picture appears. The mind projects the whole universe. So
if you get rid of the mind, there’s no universe. We have to kill
the mind. And the whole universe is annihilated, because it’s
the mind that projects the universe, and tells us all these stories.

Think for a moment of all the problems that you believe
you have. Think of what’s bothering you. You can tell me your
story for four hours. This is wrong and that’s wrong. It’s all a
projection of the mind. So by getting rid of the mind, every¬
thing stops, and beauty and joy and bliss ensue. But you’re
covering the beauty and joy and bliss when you worry, when
you fear, when you think something is wrong someplace.

When you say you are unborn or you will never die, would
that be the same as saying nothing exists?

Yes, it is. Nothing as you think or as it appears, exists. It
appears to exist, but so does a dream. A dream appears very
real. But is there a creation in a dream? Is there an end?
Everything just begins, and ends when you wake up. The
world is the same.

You should not say nothing exists, becauseeven "exists” isan
idea.

It’s an idea. That’s got to go at the end. In the beginning,
when you’re finding yourself, you realize that I exist. “I Am
That, I Am” means I exist. Same thing. But then you find out
who is the I that exists, and you follow it through. And that’s

~ 234 ~

— 235 —

<^ilence o’jj the Q^teari

got to go. Everything has got to go. Now the average person
will think, “If everything goes, what’s left?” What’s left is
Everything. You are left, as your Self, and that’s beyond
explanation. Then you turn back to yourself and you become
humble, compassionate, loving, because you are aware that
you are the whole universe. And you can say, “All this is the
Self, and I am That.”

Is that an experience?

That’s an experience. It’s beyond experience. It’s a revela¬
tion that stays with you all the time. That can be called Sahaja
Samadhi, when you abide in the Self all the time. But that’s
ineffable, it’s beyond words.

The experience doesn't matter how deep?

There’s no such thing as deep. Deep is a mind concept.
You’re either That or you’re not.

See, if you remember these things it will carry you across
the ocean ofsamsara, into the land of Self-realization. But you
have to think of these things all the time. The second principle
is this: You are unborn, you do not prevail, and you do not
disappear. In other words, you were never born, the life that
you’re experiencing does not exist, and you do not die. You
have always been. What I am saying is, there is no cause for
anything.

As an example, we speak about creation. How did creation
begin? What is its cause? Of course the Bible will tell you Adam
and Eve. That’s a nice story, if you like stories. But if you’re
talking about reality, it just began out of nothing. What came
first, the seed or the tree, the chicken or the egg? You can say
to me, “I was born. My mother and father gave me birth.”

236 -

^he (zp’Om (^Principles

Well, go all the way back. Who was the first mother and father,
just like what came first, the tree or the seed? It’s perplexing.

The best way to explain it is, take a look at your dreams.
How do you create a dream? Does it start with a beginning? As
soon as you start dreaming, there’s no creation. The dream
just starts. Everything is already there. The trees, the sky, the
earth, the flowers, the grass, people, insects, birds, flowers,
everything just appears. Does it die in the end? You just wake
up, and it’s all gone. What we’re doing now is living the mortal
dream. We believe in our bodies, in our existence, as it were.
We believe the world is real, the mind is real, our experiences
are real, and we get involved in them, like we get involved in a
movie. You know you’re not the movie. You watch the movie,
it ends, and you go home. The more you get involved in the
world situations, and in yourself, the small self, your body or
mind phenomena, the more you get pulled into ignorance.

You have to loosen yourself from this maya. And thinking
every day that you are unborn, you have no personal life, and
you do not exist, and you will not disappear, just thinking
about these things does something to you. You begin to feel
different. You begin to feel alive. But not as a body. As Omni¬
presence. You begin to understand what Moses said, when he
said, “I Am That I Am.” You begin to feel free, untarnished.
Your past is dissolved, because it never existed to begin with.
You have no past. There’s no cause. It’s all a manifestation of
your mind. As you think about this, you become totally free.

<£Ptinciple (^Number ^fahree

You are aware and you have a deep understanding of the
egolessness of all things; that everything has no ego. I’m not

237 -

C sffilence afj the (^fteart

^&he <£Piincij)les

only speaking of sentient beings. I’m speaking of the mineral
kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, the animal kingdom, the
human kingdom. Nothing has an ego. There is no ego. And do
you realize what this means? It means that everything is
sacred. Everything is God. Only when the ego comes, does God
disappear, what we call “God.” Everything becomes God. You
have reverence for everything. When there is no ego, you have
reverence for everybody and everything.

So you have to be aware of the egolessness of all things.
Animals have no ego, minerals have no ego, vegetables have
no ego, and humans have no ego. There is no cause, so there
cannot be an effect. There is only Divine Consciousness, and
everything becomes Divine Consciousness. So if you look at
your fellow man and animals and everything else as being
egolessness, you will see them as your Self. Can’t you see that?

It’s the ego that causes separation. When I am full of ego, I
become strong within myself. I become totally separate. So the
more you like yourself as a person, the bigger your ego is. You
say, “Well, I’m not supposed to like myself?” You’re supposed
to love yourself, but what self are we talking about? We’re not
talking about your body self, because that comes and goes.
We’re talking about your permanent Self, that has always been
here. And your permanent Self is me, is you, is the world, is the
universe, is everything. That’s your permanent Self.

Egolessness. That’s the only time when you can love your
fellow human beings, when you have no ego. That’s how you
can tell where you are, if you’re close to Self-realization. That’s
principle number three.

Something in me feels, understands, the egolessness of all
things. All these principles are alike. Did you come to that
conclusion yet? They all have the same source, nothing, but

you have to work with them until you get there. I feel and under¬
stand the egolessness of all things. You say all things, not just some
things, but all things, from the greatest galaxy to the minutest
atom. Nothing has an ego. If it has no ego it has no source, because
if it has an ego there has to be a source, and just by realizing this
great truth you become free immediately. It blows your mind. It’s
like a Zen koan. All of a sudden something snaps in your mind,
and your mind is gone because it has no source, since there’s no
ego. It never existed, and you feel so good.

Everything is egoless. Not only human beings, but every¬
thing. Mountains, trees, the sun, nothing has an ego. That
means it has no existence. So where did it come from? When
you have a dream, where does the dream come from? Same
place. From nowhere. From false imagination.

/ don’t understand the expression “false imagination,”
because the word imagination implies a certain falsity.

You’re imagining a false world and a false ego.

That’s sort of a paradoxical saying.

Sure. It’s all paradoxical. Because it doesn’t exist. But that’s
how we imagine it. This is the reason I always go back to the
sky is blue. Somebody takes me outside and says, “Look at the
beautiful blue sky.” And I agree with them, but I know deep
inside that that’s not true. There’s no sky and there’s no blue.
It doesn’t exist. Or the oasis in the desert. The water. It doesn’t
exist. It’s a mirage. The world’s the same thing. The universe
only exists in the dream state. It’s like a dream.

Can you say I Am is not the body?

Yes, you can say that. That’s why I tell you not to use that

-238

-239

<^>itence the Q?Ceatt

too much, because you make it too personal. You’re still into
yourself as an individual. When you read in textbooks, “I am
not the body, I am not the mind,” they’re referring to the
universal body and the universal mind. There is no body,
nobody, no-o-o body, (everyone laughs) Nobody exists. That
sounds ridiculous to the average person.

Now you may say, “What does all this do for me?” It does
everything for you if you are creative in music, art or anything
else. You’ll become a better musician and a better artist
without wanting to, without going after it. Your body will do
what it’s supposed to. There will be no karmic attachment. As
an example, if you are a great artist or a great musician or a
great carpenter, or a great loafer, or a great homeless person,
and you go after it humanly, this is what is holding you to the
earth, and you’re going to have to come back again and again
and again, because you made yourself earthbound, don’t you
see? Everything that you attach yourself to pulls you back to
the earth, whether it’s good or bad. If you hate something, it’s
the same as if you love something. It pulls you back to the
earth. You’ve got to let go. It’s just you’re letting go because
you know, “I am my brother, and my brother is me. I am
everything.”

Egolessness is at the basis of everything. Everything has no
ego. Now I’m not just talking about sentient things. Every¬
thing. The mineral kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, the
animal kingdom, the human kingdom, and so forth. There is
no ego behind it. That means there’s no cause for its existence.
And just to understand this perfectly makes you live in the
moment, all the time. It gets you centered. Think what that
means to you personally, that there’s no ego in back of
anything. There’s no cause for anything to exist. Like the

'~Z)he (spoilt oPtinci-ples

dream again, is there a cause for the dream? All of a sudden
you find yourself dreaming, and everything exists. Where did
it come from? It came from the mind. It’s a dream. And the
only way to get out of the dream is what? To wake up! So this
is also a sort of a dream. It has no substance. Everything is
transient. No ego in back of it.

I don’t quite understand there being no ego and there being
no cause as being the same.

The ego is what makes something real. The reason your
body is doing what it does is because of your ego. That’s the
cause of your body function, the ego. So if there’s no ego,
there’s no lack, there’s no limitation, there’s no sickness,
there’s no death, there’s nothing like that.

Are the ego and the mind the same, or are you making a
distinction?

They can be synonymous, in a way. Take for instance,
you’ve got a sickness of some kind. If you realize there’s no
ego in back of it, there’s no cause, where did it come from? It
didn’t come from anything, so it doesn’t exist.

So, could you also just say nothing exists?

But is it meaningful for you when you say that? See, it has
to be meaningful for you. If you say nothing exists, your mind
and your ego will come and fight you and say, “What do you
mean? Look, the chair is solid. It exists.” So you become
disappointed. But when you understand the entire principle,
that everything is egolessness, everything, then you just exist
in the moment, like that (snaps his fingers). You exist in the
second, in the moment, and in that moment all is well, and

240 -

241 -

(^tience of^ the (<pteazt

everything is unfolding as it should, in that moment. But as
soon as you start to think, then there’s a cause.

So the only cause is the thinking process.

Exactly. And you may think it’s hard to do, to think like
that, to be like that, but it’s not. Just by remembering the
egolessness of all things will wake you up. And you will
become free.

You have to have a deep realization, and a deep feeling, that
no thing has an ego. No thing has a cause, again. There’s no
reason for anything to be. No thing really exists. You are not
a sinner. You are not an evil person. Your past is dead, forget
it. You’re born again, now, and all is glory and joy. This is what
it means to be born again, to realize that you exist now, in this
moment. Not a moment ago, and never mind what’s going to
happen a moment from now. But you exist in this moment as
Pure Intelligence, Unqualified Love, Absolute Reality, Uncon¬
ditioned Oneness. That’s you. You live in that reality. And
again, that sets you free.

c£Principle (^Number (dfom

Principle number four is simply this: You have a deep
conviction, a deep understanding, a deep feeling, of what Self-
realization of Noble Wisdom really is. What is Self-realization
of Noble Wisdom to you? You can never know by trying to find
out what it is, because it’s Absolute Reality. You can only
know by finding out what it is not.

So you say, it is not my body, it is not my mind, it is not my
organs, it is not my thoughts, it is not my world, it is not my
universe, it is not the animals, or the trees, or the moon, or the

-242

r ~f)ke (&fout (^Principles

sun, or the stars, it is not any of those things. When you’ve
gone through everything and there’s nothing left, that’s what
it is. Nothing. Emptiness. Nirvana. Ultimate Oneness.

You say, “I perceive and understand what realization is. I
know, something within me understands and feels what Self-
realization is,” and you keep still. Believe me, the answer will
come to you. The only way you can find out is through
negation. So you can say to yourself, “It’s not the sun because
the sun is a projection of my mind. It’s not the moon.” Same
thing. “It’s not my husband or my wife, it’s not my body or my
organs. It’s not peace. It’s not the war.” Everythingyou name,
it’s not. When you get tired of naming things, you keep silent,
and that’s what it is. Everything is Silence. The four principles
and the Silence are all the same. Now, what’s number four?

It has something to do with “we are nothing. ”

(laughing) Everything has to do with that. But it’s actually
to have an understanding, and a deep realization, of what Self-
realization of Noble Wisdom is.

And how is noble wisdom defined from regular wisdom?

It’s the same thing. Just more wordy. It’s a Buddhist
expression.

They have all these real long expressions. And then they say
what it is.

The eight-fold path. And then they take years explaining it.
But when you get into the highest teaching there’s nothing. So
the fourth one is, the only way to know what Self-realization
is, is by knowing what it is not. And whatever is left, that’s
what it is. So you say it’s not the body, it’s not the mind, it’s
not my organs, it’s not my thoughts, it’s not the world, it’s not

■243

Silence oh the (<pteatl

the sun, it’s not the universe, it’s not God, it’s not creation, and
you go on and on and on. When you get out of breath and out
of words, that’s it.

Is that what the expression “neti, neti” means?

Yes.

Is it boring? If all that goes away, and there is nothing?

(laughing) No! See, that’s what people think. That’s why I
explained before, the mind will make you say that because it
doesn’t want to be annihilated. It wants to rule you and
control you completely. Because that’s its nature. That’s the
nature of the mind that doesn’t exist.

When you’re meditating, are you totally separate from this
physical world?

When who’s meditating? When I’m meditating personally?
Well, I don’t usually meditate. I sit sometimes with my eyes
closed but I just rest my eyelids.

Because there’s no one there, right? There’s no one to
meditate.

There has to be someone to meditate. That doesn’t mean
you should stop meditating. It means you should look at these
four principles and compare them to where you are yourself,
and work on yourself so that you can apply these principles to
yourself everyday, until the day comes when you don’t have to
talk about it any longer. You just become a total manifestation
of those principles. You just realize; you become aware.

Now, what’s the fourth principle?

None of these principles exist.

~T)hc Pfjfour G 'Principles

You’re right. I usually don’t do this. But I’m giving you
these principles to help you. (Robert laughs) Right. They don’t
exist. But as long as you believe your body exists, they exist
also. As long as you feel the world exists, and your body exists,
and the mind exists, then the principles also exist. And karma
exists, and God exists, and creation exists.

You have to have a strong feeling and realization of what
Self-realization means. And what’s the only way you can do
that? Remember?

Practice the other three principles?

That helps. By realizing what it is not. You can’t know what
Self-realization is because you are already That. But you can
know what it’s not. So, by eliminating everything, then what is
left is Self-realization. You can’t explain it, so you negate it. In
other words, you think of what it isn’t. Self-realization is not the
world, it’s not the universe, it’s not my body, it’s not anything
I can think about. It’s not my mind. Then what is Self-realiza¬
tion? Whatever answer comes to you is wrong, for it has no
answer. There are no words that can describe it. Forget about
your intelligence. Human intelligence sucks. It doesn’t exist.
Why? Because it dies with you. We’re talking about something
that’s eternal, that has always been, and will always be.

You have to become aware of these principles. I give you
these things with great compassion, that you have something
to do every day besides watching TV or reading comic books.
Think, but not intellectually.

fffou <3&te <&yNot the QUor/B

This is not a formal talk. I can only tell you about my own
experiences, not what I read. I can tell you that nothing exists

■ 244 ~

■ 245 ~

<s£ilence the (pplcact

the way it appears. Everything is appearance. The trap is, that
we get pulled into the appearance. We react to it. We feel hurt.
We feel slandered. We feel something is wrong. We have
negative emotions because we are falling for a false prem¬
ise—that the world is real.

In fact, the world is not real and neither are you. What we
have to do is stop reacting to anything. The only way to do that
is to discover who you are. When you discover your true
nature, everything becomes perfectly clear. You are at peace.
If something works out, it works out. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.
Your feelings have been transmuted. You never even feel what
human beings feel. You just have a great love and compassion
for all things. You know that the substratum of all existence is
harmony, peace, emptiness. You feel wonderful all the time.
What can disturb you if you are at peace? If you find true
peace, what can possibly disturb you?

The world comes and goes. One day it is like this, the next
day, it is like that. But what does it have to do with you?
Nothing. You are free, you are not the world. You are not your
body, you are not your mind. You are total freedom, total joy,
total love. You have to awaken to this fact—it’s truth.

We speak many words and take many actions, but to what
avail? Does it matter in the end? We build our life, we earn
positions, we father children, and what happens at the end?
Poof. It’s all gone. Everything disappears. (Robert laughs)
There is nothing. So what’s the purpose?

People say, “I must leave this world better for my chil¬
dren. They are dreaming. The world will never be better or be
worse. The world is a dream of existence; like this one day, like
that another. But you are not the world. Awaken to that fact.

You are not your thoughts, you are not your karmic
expressions, you are not your inclinations from past lives.

^lohe (s^’Ouz ^Principles

Things appear real as long as you believe in them. If I believe
in the devil, the devil would appear to me. I would create him
myself. If you believe in God, your god would appear to you.
Ramakrishna believed in the goddess Kali. Kali became very
real to him. He used to dance and sing with Kali. (Robert
laughs) He created Kali. That is why no one else saw Kali but
him. That is how we create our lives.

Think of the things you fear in your life. You fear becoming
sick. You fear poverty. You fear getting divorced, you fear
getting married. Whatever you fear is a concept created by
your own mind. There is no question of should I get married
or shouldn’t I get married. It doesn’t matter. What matters is
how you react to it and what you expect of it. This is true in
every aspect of your life. That is what you have been trained to
believe since you were a little kid. Your teachers brainwashed
you, your parents brainwashed you, the outside world brain¬
washed you, and here you are.

You are filled with ideas, concepts, emotions, attitudes, and
that makes you what you are—miserable, (laughter) As soon
as you wake up, all that disappears. Nothing can ever happen
to you of a destructive nature. There is absolutely nothing that
can destroy you. You cannot be destroyed. Your body may
appear to vanish, but that is like a dream. You dream that you
are doing something, then you get shot and disappear. Then
you wake up.

My question to you is, “What do you believe about yourself
and about the world? What is most important to you?” I feel
that a true spiritual path should be the first thing of impor¬
tance in your life. Why? Because it wakes you up. No matter
how good a life you live, you may become the richest and most
famous person on earth, you’ll have to experience the other

~ 246 ~

~ 247 ~

<s£ilence othe (jpleatt

side of the coin one day and be the poorest, most miserable
person on earth. That’s the way it works. You may say to me,
“My neighbor never has any problems. It’s like he fell into a
pot of gold. Everything he touches turns into money. He’s as
happy as a horse. He’s got a beautiful wife, a big house,
everything he could possibly need, and look at me! You know,
that guy’s life hasn’t changed for forty years.”

You’re making your own conclusion. He has earned this
karmically, and if he doesn’t pull away from it, he might spend his
whole life in goodness, human goodness. But then he will be
drawn back again by the law of karma, which is in his mind and he
doesn’t know it, and next time he will be a homeless person.
Whatever he does, he won’t be able to make a dime. He’ll try his
best, but he’ll always be poverty stricken. He won’t be able to earn
a dime no matter how hard he tries. This is why we should never
judge. You have no idea what your neighbor’s going through.
Never say he or she has a wonderful life and look at mine. Why am
I poor, why am I sick, why am I this way or that \yay. The idea is
to wake up, not to look at yourself, not to feel sorry for yourself, not
to compare yourself with others, but to awaken.

When you awaken, something happens that is unexplain¬
able. There are no human words to explain it. When you
awaken you just understand, you know, you feel—and these
words are inadequate—you become Divine harmony. You are
no longer fooled by person, place or thing. You no longer
react.

As an example, someone tells you that you won the lotto,
you won fifty billion dollars. You do not become a slave to
that. Someone tells you that you lost fifty billion dollars. Same
thing, same reaction. You do not become a slave to that. What
happens in the human life does not matter. When you know

^ihe <&om <£Princij)les

who you are, you do not say it doesn’t matter. You simply
exist. You exist as yourself. You’re at peace. No one can ever
take the peace away from you no matter how hard they try.
You are not fooled by things.

What you do is deal with yourself. You can give of yourself
because you become your living self. Therefore, you can give
yourself away and you’re still there, for you’ve become the Infinite
Self, the Divine Mother, Omnipresence, Total Oneness with all
things. So you can give of yourself, and yet you’re always there.

When Ramana Maharshi was being robbed, his devotees
wanted to attack the robbers, and he said, “No, no, no. It’s our
dharma to be what we are, and it’s their dharma to be what
they are. We should not interfere with their dharma, therefore
give them what they want.” That’s very profound. We are
spiritual people. The world is not. We act in accordance with
spiritual principles.

What this really means is that we, as human beings,
become last, not first. That’s what Jesus meant when he said,
“Those who go first will be last, and those who are last will be
first.” You have to develop great humility. Do not long for
anything. Do not want to be rich, or famous or great, and do
not say, I want to be poor and have nothing, either. They’re
both wrong. Just be yourself. When you are yourself, you will
be amazed how the universe takes care of you.

It’s like the body with vitamins and medicines. Your body
is a natural healing factory and able to heal itself. When you
start taking too many vitamins, when you start taking medi¬
cines too much, the body says, “Well, you’ve made that into
your God, so now you have to depend on it.” Then you have to
keep taking vitamins for the rest of your life or you get sick.
Think about that.

~ 248 ~

~ 249 ~

^tience op the Qptecut

You’ve got to depend on yourself to take care of everything.
Now, your Self is yourself. There’s one Self, so we take care of
each other. Did you ever think of that? When you think of
others you’re making a mistake. The feeling will come to you
one day that you are all others. There are no others, there is
just the Self appearing as others. So, how do you treat others?
As you treat yourself. You don’t think about it. You don’t think
that that person’s worthy and that person’s not, so I’m going
to help this person, not that person. You give of yourself
automatically. You do not think about it because everything is
yourself, and that includes the mineral kingdom, the vegetable
kingdom, the animal kingdom, the human kingdom, and
everything else you don’t understand. They’re all part of the
One. What you do to the One, you do to everything. How you
treat one person is how you treat the whole universe because
everything is One.

Now, these four principles I gave you have to do with all
these things. You’re supposed to ponder these things.

3 /on re (&7tfot 3;]our ^Problems

Most of us have been searching for reality for many years.
We’ve been to many teachers, many groups. But we still
haven t found peace. Why? Because we’re searching. That’s a
direct, succinct answer. Because we’re searching for some¬
thing. No matter how many times I emphasize there’s nothing
to search for, people still search. Sometimes it would be better
if we tore up all the books. Books are only to motivate us, to
make us know there’s something else. But there comes a time
when we have to go within and try to understand what this
body really is. The truth, of course, is not a teaching. I do not

'Poke (Spout <£Princi'ples

philosophize. I do not give a teaching, as a rule. I simply give
a confession, and to most people it means nothing. But we’re
not trying to attract most people. Those who feel something in
their heart will always come to satsang. And you’ll always
attract a teacher that is more to your liking.

I do not consider myself a teacher or a guru. I do not
consider myself anything at all. But, the Reality that is left over
is your reality. It is Omnipresence. There is one Unqualified
Reality, and this is it, right here, right now. There are no
bodies here. What you see is your own business. When you see
others, you’re making a mistake. There never were others.
We’re always looking for something. We want to find the right
teacher. The right teacher is where you are. Person, place or
thing is not the right teacher. You probably saw the movie
Siddhartha, where he found the river and the peace of the
forest. Even that’s a mistake, because he took the river
seriously, and made too much of the forest. He was the forest.
He was the river. What we’re seeking is utter foolishness.
There’s nothing to seek.

I get so many calls. People tell me their problems all the
time. And I really don’t know how to respond. To whom shall
I tell my problems? There just are not any problems. There are
no problems. You may say to yourself, “If he only knew my
problems.” But, if you live in the moment, is there a problem
right now, this second? There’s nothing. Nothing is your real
nature. A problem begins only when you start thinking. But if
you learn not to think, where’s the problem? So, we have to
empty the mind, and then get rid of the mind. And we cannot
empty the mind by thinking. Only by observation. Only when
there is no thought is there reality. There’s no sense saying to
yourself, “I am Parabrahman, Absolute Reality. I am unborn.”

~ 250 ~

251

(Silence ofl the (ffifCeatt

^ffiohe (&fiowc oPtincifles

Those are just words. And the next moment you have a
problem, you have an emotion. You feel something is wrong.
But you keep declaring, “I am unborn. I am the Absolute
Reality.” It is better to say nothing, to believe nothing, to be
nothing, and that’s just being yourself. It’s better just to sit,
and think of nothing and try to become nothing, than it is to
chant mantras, or to make affirmations, or to keep saying, “I
am Brahman.” Just by sitting, you will become yourself.

Can you say the Self is real or is ' real’ a term that doesn’t
exist?

If you say the Self is real, you don’t really mean it. If you
meant it you wouldn’t have to say it, but you can say it when
you are truly yourself, because it makes you feel better. It helps
you live. It’s better than saying that my world is real or my
problem is real. It’s better to say the Self is real than to say that.

What is better than that, to say nothingness is real?

Keep silent. Say nothing. When you ask yourself the
question, “Where does my mind come from or where do my
problems come from,” and you keep still, that’s real. The
emptiness is real.

Isn’t the emptiness the same as the Self?

Yes, but when you speak, you spoil it to an extent.

That’s right because the Self doesn’t know.

When you say the Self is real, that becomes personal. When
there’s silence, it becomes omnipresent.

Silence is always the best policy after you say all those
things to yourself. It’s in the Silence that your problems just

dissolve. Try it. It really works. When you keep still after
saying a lot of these things, your problems will dissolve by
themselves. Do not think, “I am getting rid of my problems,”
because that enhances the problems. Do not think about the
problems at all, but work on yourself to see your own reality,
and in reality there are no problems.

We can also note that to most people, no matter how many
times I say this, their problems are very real to them. The
problems hold them like a vice. They really feel their prob¬
lems. To those people I say, “To the extent that you can realize
that your mind is creating these problems, in reality you are
mindless.” To that extent the problems begin to dissolve.”
Repeat this when you wake up, when you open your eyes in
the morning. Do not go through the four principles all at once.
Take one at a time, even if you don’t get to the second that
morning, and spend an hour or two working on the first one,
that is good. You can do these things all your life if necessary
instead of worrying about your problems. Take them one at a
time.

There are two things that you said which I had difficulty
with. One of the things you said is, never deal with a problem.

Right.

And I know we should concentrate on the positive things you
were speaking about, that’s the essential teaching, to stress all the
ideas you already talked about today. But still, in this period of life
that we have, as we make these statements, as we move towards
this goal which I can accept, still there is the life to be lived. There
are issues to deal with. So it seems to me that when you say, don’t
deal with the problem, this leads to enormous problems.

~ 252 ~

~ 253 ~

Silence ofi the (jpteazt

P)he (ppour (£Pvinciples

On the contrary. You’re separating both. You’re putting
them into categories. There’s only One. As an example, say
somebody cheated you, and you sue them in court. When you
sue somebody and you’re getting involved in something like
that, you’re sending up an energy. Even if you win the case,
you’re going to have to sue somebody else and then sue
somebody else, and it never stops. You’ve set up a pattern for
yourself. But if you go about it the other way, and if you know
the truth aboutyourself, you also know the truth about the guy
who cheated because you both are One.

Robert, let me give you another example. Let’s say that we all

stay here and we have no money. Tomorrow we’re all hungry in
the morning, and we say we’re not going to deal with this
problem, but because our hunger is so great and keeps mount¬
ing, we really can’t think of anything else. Eventually, we can’t
think ofany of these ideas that you told us about because we’re
so extremely hungry.

Your first premise is wrong. It doesn’t work like that. It
would never work like that. If you’re hungry, something will
happen to appease your hunger. What you’re thinking about
is that you sit down and you do nothing. It doesn’t work like
that. When you know the truth, somebody will knock on the
door and bring you food.

Something will take care of you. When you came to this
earth, everything was predestined. And everything is aware of
how to take care of you, and what you’re going to go through.
But it has nothing to do with you. The secret is not to react.
Just do what has to be done. And you will do what has to be
done. You can’t help it.

I brought up the example a week or two ago about the
holocaust, and remember I said how the attitude of the Jewish
people and especially the Rabbis was that God is living in Nazis,
God has manifested himself through Auschwitz and the others,
and so we must go along with this. Would you say that’s the
attitude the Jewish people should have had?

On the contrary, because that’s an attitude. I’m not talking
about attitudes. I’m talking about realization. Reading the
Bible and making quotations is one thing. Being a living
embodiment of the Truth is another thing.

There’s a difference in knowing the Truth, and just letting
yourself be walked on. This does not mean you become a rug
for somebody to step on you. You become a doormat for no
one. You are abiding in the Self. When you abide in the Self,
everything will be OK. You’re not a coward. You’re not
running from anything. You’re abiding in the Self. When you
abide in the Self, if you have to pick up a sword and fight, you
will. If you have to run, you will. But you will do what you have
to do. But it has nothing to do with you. It’s different than you
think. It’s not like you think.

Then, you’re saying to deal with the problem.

On the contrary, if you become the truth, the problem will
take care of itself.

Yes, but you’re speaking of a state to which we are aspiring,
and I believe that would happen, but we’re not in that state. We
are not fully in that state because we cannot fully grasp it and
manifest it.

If you take it personally, and you work on yourself as I said,
you will do what’s right. You will not be passive.

- 254 -

-255

Silence o^ the offteait

Theoretically , it all makes sense. In actual practice is where
I get confused.

If it made sense it wouldn’t be the truth, (everyone laughs)

So you didn’t exactly say, don’t deal with the problem, just
realize that the body doesn’t really exist. Your body will do the
right thing by itself.

As long as you’re aware that it has nothing to do with you,
you are not your body, you are not your mind, you are not the
situation, you are free from it.

Remember what Christ said when he said, 'Put you first the
kingdom of Heaven and all the rest will be added unto you’.
Isn’t that something you’re saying?

That’s right.

I have no argument with the concept, the idea, the goal, and
the abstract reality. I am talking about the interim period that
we live in our daily lives during the day. That’s why I bring up
these problems, and the food as examples of what we have to
deal with every moment.

Your body and mind are motivated by karma. The law of
karma takes care of them. But you are not your body. If you
are aware that you are not your body, the right action will
ensue.

You mean you can be aware that you’re not your body, yet
your body will go out and get food.

Exactly.

But you would know that you are not the doer. If you are
aware, those are key words, if you are aware that you are not

^frihe (£fout ^Principles

the body. I would say from my understanding that there are
degrees of awareness. If you are completely, absolutely, totally
and wholly aware that you are not the body, then I grant you
that. But there are these degrees of awareness, and if you are not
at that particular state, then you must render to Caesar what is
Caesar’s.

In reality, there are no degrees. You either are or you’re
not. If you think you’re not, then you have to fetch for your¬
self. If you think you are, you’ll think about these things, and
then you’ll go and do something. But you won’t be doing it. It
will do itself. See, when you say it’s not me doing it, you
believe that you are the one, you are the body. You don’t say
it’s not me doing it. You ask the question, “To whom does it
come?” There’s a difference. It keeps the me out of it com¬
pletely.

What kind of answer can one expect when you ask who is it
for?

No answer.

So, therefore, the action would be non-personal.

Exactly. If there’s an answer, it’s the wrong answer. See, all
these years we’ve been dealing with a finite mind, with our
own intellectual processes, with our preconceived ideas, with
our concepts. But I’m saying we have to transcend those, and
use a new part of us that we’ve never used before. And that’s
the Self. So when you abide in the Self, everything will be OK.
Everything will work out. It has nothing to do with being
passive, or being violent or anything else. It’s a completely
new ball game. You’re on God’s team, and you’re well taken
care of, but it’s different. There are no words to explain it.

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(Silence (f the (fpCearl

You have to go inside to understand it.

Yes, you have a deep understanding, and a deep knowl¬
edge, that all is well and everything is unfolding as it should.

That’s what I was going to say. Robert was telling us before
about not being the doer, the realization that you are not the
doer is what Christ was talking about. That is, you dwell on the
Self, on Self-realization, and your body will continue to do
whatever is necessary karmically, but your realization that
you’re not the body and you’re not the doer doesn’t mean it
doesn’t get done.

Well, now we’re getting down to the nitty gritty. Then what
you’re suggestingis this. Let’s talk about tomorrow morning. My
body-mind says go out and try to find some money to get
breakfast, but all the time that I’m doing this I can still think
that I am not doing this. I am not going to begetting the money.
I am not going to be eating it.

No, no, no. When you work on the principles and you are
hungry in your body, you will automatically, spontaneously go
get food, but you won’t dwell on it. Your mind will be some¬
where else.

Take my life, for instance. When I get up in the morning, I
have no idea what is going to happen that day, but I am acting
and interacting. I do certain things, but not purposely; it
happens spontaneously. I didn’t ask to teach classes like these.
It happened. I never asked for anything. It happens because
my body does it, spontaneously. My mind is not aware,
involved. I don’t plan, except maybe to spend a couple of
hours in Venice. But I have no long range plans. Everything
works out. I know it is hard to perceive this.

~ 258 ~

fy/ie (Sfioux. <£Ptinctple&

My second point is related to that. You quoted Ramana
tellinghis devotees to give to the robbers, but couldn’t his karma
have been to protect?

It was not his dharma, his way, his truth.

Another teacher could have told his followers to kill the
robbers.

That’s right. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna told Arjuna to
fight. It depends on the path you are on. Notice that Krishna did
not have to fight. He told Arjuna to fight. When you get to the
highest there is peace. There is no need to do anything. In the
martial arts, when one becomes proficient to the highest degree,
they do nothing. They don’t even defend themselves. They go
the other way. They accept being killed. Arjuna was not up
there.

The highest teaching is that everything is being taken care
of. Ramana, as a boy, would have died if it were not for this
mysterious power that took care of him. He went into the
jungle and into a cave and sat there. He didn’t know where his
food would come from. He didn’t even think about it. It didn’t
enter his mind. He just sat there for days until a woman came
to help and started to feed him. If you have trust and faith,
there is a mysterious power that will take care of you and
supply all you need.

But while you are paying attention to the Spirit, you must
function in the world and deal with problems.

You are speaking from your own point of view. You are
speaking of appearances. This is how you see it now. But it is
not like that.

259

Silence of the (<p£eml

I first came because someone said it would beagood thingto
do. It just happened. I didn’t go to him asking for places to see.
Yet, each week I have to consciously arrange to come here. Both
energies exist on the same plane simultaneously.

No. This plane you speak of doesn’t exist. As long as you
believe it does, it does, because you are creating it. You give it
its power. You are its power source. When you take the power
away, everything just is.

When you realize you are not the doer, your body will do
whatever it has come to earth to do. Your body follows karma.
But your body is not you. That can only be experienced. To
most people this is ridiculous. All that I have said does not
mean a thing. Most people want something practical, to
accentuate the humanhood in them. The highest truth is that
humanhood does not exist. When you come to that conclu¬
sion, your life will be bliss.

So what you’re also saying then, is in predestination, the soul
chooses to be born in a particular time or to a particular life in
order to continue with its existence.

That’s part of the appearance. And if you believe in your
body, and you believe in your mind, then karma is real, and
predestination is real. But if you abide in the Self, everything
else becomes redundant. But in the meantime on this earthly
plane, or this particular plane, one way of describing it is
predestination. The answer is there, but if you look at it as a
continuum, it’s part of the four principles. Nothing appears in
the beginning, no end.

And if you become realized, you can get off the karmic wheel.

Yes, exactly. To put it in an easier point of view so you can

'fohe (sf-our oPtinci'ples

understand it, if you believe in your body, again, if you believe
in your mind, if you believe that you are a body, then every¬
thing else exists; karma, God, creation, everything exists. But
when the realization comes to you that I am not the body, and
I am not the mind, everything disappears. Like the four
principles. So that’s why the secret is to practice abiding in the
Self. Then everything else will happen by itself. You don’t try
to get rid of your karma, or get rid of the negative situation,
because that’s like cutting off a tumor on one arm and it grows
back on the other arm. You go right to the source, the Self.
And then everything is resolved.

04)hat Jf^oes (zffnana <§Maztya *4?each ?

Please do not be shocked at some of the things I may say.

I am not a teacher, nor am I a lecturer, nor am I a minister. I
am merely a looking glass, so that you can see your own
reflection. What you think of yourself, you see in me. I may
say certain things you’re not used to. Bear with me. You
should not accept anything I say, nor should you believe
anything I say, until you’re able to prove it to yourself. I simply
give my confession, that I am not the body nor the mind, nor
the phenomenal world, that I am Pure Intelligence, Absolute
Reality, Sat-Chit-Ananda, Divine Mind, Unborn, Emptiness.

When I use the word “I Am,” I am not referring to Robert.
I am referring to “I Am That, I Am,” Omnipresence, the
Infinite.

I get lots of phone calls from people asking me all kinds of
questions. One question that most people keep asking again
and again is, “What can I do to resolve my problems? Can you
give me an affirmation, a mantra, a meditation, a breathing

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tience afj the (<plecizt

exercise, something I can use?” These things have their place,
but they will not awaken you to your true Self. In all of the
higher scriptures it is written that the path of Advaita Vedanta,
or Jnana Marga, is only for mature souls.

Now what does that mean? It is for those who, in a previous
lifetime, have already practiced sadhanas, breathing exercises,
yoga techniques, etc., and now they’re ready to awaken
through this type of teaching. And the Buddhist scripture
declares that those who want to do yogas, or breathing
exercises, are the simple minded and ignorant. (Robert
chuckles) Now, what do they mean? They don’t mean to insult
you, but they are referring to those who are attached to the
world, those who believe the world is real, and who feel the
pull of the world. They want to use all kinds of gimmicks to
free themselves from their problems, but not to be totally free.

Now, what does Jnana Marga teach? We teach simply this:
not to accept anything, unless you can demonstrate it. Not to
believe anything, unless you can demonstrate it. Not to believe
anything, unless you can use it for yourself, and you can see
it’s true. To do affirmations, mantras, yoga exercises and so
forth, will not awaken you. You start from the beginning. You
simply admit to yourself that you exist. This is the truth. You
do exist, don’t you? So you say to yourself, "I exist. I know that
for sure. I exist. I exist. That’s all I know. I’m ignorant of
everything else, but I do know that I exist, because here I am.”
And, as you keep saying this to yourself, “I exist,” you begin to
put more space between the “I” and “exist.” “I... exist.”

If you’re doing this correctly, you’ll soon find that “I” and
“exist” are two separate words. In other words, you’ll come to
the conclusion that you exist as I. You’ll have to ask yourself,
ponder, “Who is this I that exists? What is I?” You never

^he (zSfiout oPtinci-ples

answer. It will come to you of its own accord. When you sleep
and you awaken, you say, “I slept.” When you dream you say,
“I had a dream.” And when you’re awake, of course, you say,
“I am awake.” But that I is always there. You start to inquire
within yourself, “What is this T that exists at all times? It
exists when I’m asleep, when I’m awake, when I dream. Who
is this ‘I’?” And now the inquiry starts. “Where does this T
come from? From whence cometh the T?” You ask yourself.
The answers are within yourself. And you keep asking your¬
self, over, and over, and over, and over again, “From whence
cometh the T? Where does the T come from?” Or, again,
“From whence cometh the ‘I’? Where does the T come from?”
Or, “Who am I?” And you wait a little while, and you repeat
the same question, “Where does the ‘I’ come from?”

While you’re doing that, you follow the “I” deep, deep,
within. You keep following the “I.” You go deeper and deeper
into the “I.” Where does this T come from? Who is this T?
Whatever answer comes to you is the wrong answer. Do not
accept it, but do not deny it. You simply put it aside. And you
continue with the Self-inquiry. “Who am I?” And you wait.
And you ask again, “Who am I?” It is not a mantra. “Where
did the ‘I’ come from? How did it get there? Who gave it birth?
What is the source ofthe T?” You continue to abide in the “I.”

As you continue this process, someday something will
happen. To some people it comes like an explosion within
where all your thoughts are wiped away. For you see, “I” is the
first pronoun, and every thought that you have in the world,
is attached to the “I.” It is secondary. Think about that.
Whatever you have to say about yourself has “I” in it. Every¬
thing in the world is about yourself. “I” am going to the
movies. “I” am going bowling. “I” feel like crying. “I” feel

262 -

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<^>itence ofy the QpteaiL

terrible. “I” feel wonderful. “I” feel sick. “I” feel well. There’s
always an “I,” “I,” “I.” What is this “I,” and what is it all
about? Everything is attached to the “I.” Subsequently, when
the “I” is wiped out, everything else is wiped out, and the
troubles are over. All thoughts go with the “I.”

Now, there’s no answer to “Who am I?” When you get to
the answer there will be emptiness, a void. You will be of the
unborn. But it is not a void like you think. It is not emptiness
like you think. For want of a better word you can call it
Godliness, Nirvana, Sat-Chit-Ananda, Bliss Consciousness,
Absolute Reality. It doesn’t matter what name you give it. You
will become That, and there will be no explanation. You will
just become That, and you will feel a profound peace that you
have never felt before. You will feel a bliss that is unqualified.
You will try to explain it to yourself and to your friends, but
you cannot. For the finite cannot comprehend the Infinite.
There are no words.

That’s the method you use. Self-inquiry. You follow the I-
thought to its source. How long does it take? It depends on
yourself, how sincere you are, what else you’re doing with
your life. If you’re using this like you do everything else—for
instance if you say, “Well today I’m going to practice the I-
thought, then I’m going to go to a movie, then I’m going to go
bowling, then I’m going to watch TV, then tomorrow I’ll do
the same thing,” of course, what’s going to happen in a case
like that? V ery little. But if you put your energy into it, and you
practice it every chance you get, and you put this first in your
life, you will see amazing results. Amazing results. But you
have to put it first in your life.

Think right now. What is first in your life? Don’t tell me but
just think. What comes first in your life? Can you take it with

^Pohe out ^Principles

you when you die? Don’t you see by now that you live in a
world of constant change? That the only thing permanent in
life is change. All facts change. Only truth is real. And truth is
personal. For the sincere devotees or students, they will put
this first in their life, and then they will start seeing results.
You have to find it for yourself. But ifyou’re still worrying, and
fearing something, and you think other duties come first, then
you’ve got to work on yourself.

That’s why, with great compassion, I give you certain
things you can do before you get into Self-realization. Just
before you become Self-realized, you begin to feel certain
things. And those are the four principles I gave you. That
comes to you automatically. But, you have to, upon awaken¬
ing, become aware of these principles. You cannot think of
them at your leisure. But you sort of have to coax the mind.
You have to coax your mind to think upon the four principles
as soon as you open your eyes in the morning.

So you have two things to do. When you open your eyes
you can either ask yourself, “Where did the ‘I’ come from?
Who am I that slept last night? Who am I that has just awak¬
ened? Who am I that exists now?” Or you can think about the
four principles. Whatever is convenient for you. But, by all
means, if you want Self-realization, and you want to become
free, and you want to be free from the ocean of samsara,
worldliness, and become blissful, then it’s up to you. I can
share these things with you, but I can’t make you do them. It’s
just like I can bring you to the gold mine, but you’ve got to do
your own digging. What comes first in your life again? What¬
ever comes first in your life, that’s what you become. In the
end, you’re going to have to leave your body, your thoughts,
your possessions, your loved ones. Everything is going to be

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Silence of the (<pteatt

left in the end. So the wise person searches for truth now, and
tries to become free now.

So let’s briefly go over the four principles again, for I feel
they’re very important. Another thing I do is this: Most
ministers, teachers, whatever, philosophers, they always
search for new knowledge. They research, research, research,
and then they share with their congregations or students
something profound, something new every Sunday. And, of
course, you always forget the previous Sunday, and you go
into newwords. It’s agame ofwords. You may learn aboutthe
astral planes, the causal planes, reincarnation. You may learn
about how to become positive in your life, how to attract the
right mate, how to attract money, health, and all kinds of stuff.
How to channel, how to do this, and it’s very exciting to the
ego. What we do here is, we try for you to remove your ego so
you do not get caught up in the world. That’s the only way to
become happy, truly happy, and Self-realized. This is why I
reiterate, and repeat again and again, the same principle, so it
can soak deep into your subconscious mind, and you can
become a living embodiment of this truth.

Couldyou state thefour principles again, as clearly as possible?

(1) 1 understand, I feel, I perceive, that everything, every¬
thing—and emphasize the second everything—is a mani¬
festation of my mind.

(2) I feel and understand deeply, that I am unborn, I do not
prevail, and I do not disappear.

(3) I feel and understand the egolessness of everything, of
all creation.

(4) I have a deep understanding of what Self-realization is
by what it is not.

That’s it.

266

'fjhe (O "Principles

What if we don’t feel that, should we say that?

Say it when you wake up. It starts something going.

During the day should we say that?

Make it a little different. Think that everything is a projec¬
tion of your mind. In the morning it is good to say, I perceive,

I understand. When you first open your eyes, you are not
awake yet, and you are your real Self. Therefore, you are
confessing to yourself your real nature. It goes deep into the
subconscious mind as a new idea.

Should we be asking all these questions in satsang?

Real satsang is not intellectual, it is the reality of the person
giving it. New students all ask the same questions. That is their
perception. No matter what I say, they never will be able to see
it until they become it, because they identify with their bodies.

It is the ego that wants to know. When you begin to feel
that you know less, that is a good sign, because you know less
about the world and more about the Self. The more con¬
founded you become, the more the ego breaks up.

Isn’t the purpose of satsang to ask questions?

Yes, but you have to practice the things I tell you and watch
what happens. When you leave here you have to work on
yourself and not just get caught up in the world until the next
meeting. You’ll see what happens.

%he %hzee Vehicles of, (£>elf-dJ(eaiization

After you learn the four principles, and they become a
living embodiment within yourself, then you learn about the

267 -

Silence othe (^teatt

three vehicles, which carry you over the ocean of samsara, into
the land of Self-realization of Noble Wisdom. That’s why
they re called vehicles. But you can only feel these vehicles
when you’ve mastered the previous.

The first one is this: You have a deep feeling . . . now
remember, this is before Self-realization, afterwards it doesn’t
matter what you do . . . you have a deep longing, a deep
feeling, to be by yourself. Now, in the West they tell you this is
antisocial behavior, but you have a feeling. In other words, you
don’t mentally say to yourself, “I want to be alone,” like Greta
Garbo. It s not a mental game you’re playing. Because of your
inquiry and your feeling and knowing the four principles, you
have a feeling to be by yourself, so you are not pulled down by
the world, to give you an opportunity to make the four
principles and Self-inquiry work for you. So you enjoy being
alone. You want to be by yourself. You look for times that you
can be by yourself, so you can work on yourself, and that
becomes a total joy for you. It’s like total heaven to be by
yourself, not all the time, but most of the time. It’s only when
you re by yourself that you can argue with yourself, and you
can tell off your mind, and you can scream a little, if you like,
and do what ever you have to do to get rid of the ego and the
mind. That’s the first vehicle.

The second vehicle is: You have a deep feeling, a deep
desire, to always be at satsang. Now, satsang is not just a
spiritual meeting, as most of you know. It’s not a gathering of
people when they hear a lecture. Who can explain what
satsang is? How about you, Narada? What is satsang to you?

Well, ultimately, I suppose it can ’t really be put into words,
so to realize that. I understand what the essence of satsang is,
that it can’t be put into words. Satsang is like the embodiment

^he (&fom (£Ptinciples

of the teaching. So I think that there’s a growth in satsang, that
takes place, a growth that does not take place in the words.

OK, that’s a good explanation. Anybody else like to say
what satsang is?

Abiding in the Self.

Yes, exactly. Being together with people who abide in the
Self; the realization that there is one Self, and you are That. So
being in satsang is being at the feet of God. That’s what it
literally means. Sitting at the feet of God. And God is none
other than your Self. So you want to be with your Self when
you come together with us. And you’re still alone. You’re still
by your Self. Because all the people with you are your Self.

Doesn’t it usually involve the presence of a sage?

Yes. But remember, the sage, the guru, and God are your
Self. It’s all the same. What I mean by that is, I don’t want you
to look at me as being a sage, or being anything at all. When
you see me, as I mentioned in the beginning, I am a mirror.
You see yourself. And when you see yourself as divinity, you
will also see everyone else here as divinity. We’re all one.
There’s no difference.

Number three: You will have a deep feeling, and a deep
desire, to be around people like yourself. In other words your
old relatives, your old friends, your old cronies that you used
to drink with, and get high with, or whatever you did with
them; they don’t turn you on any more. You want to be with
spiritual people like yourself. You’re not putting it on. You’re
not intellectualizing it. You’re not imagining that you want to
do that because I told you to. From your practice you become
like that. It’s an inner feeling, a deep inner feeling. Those are
the three vehicles.

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Silence ofj the <^pteatt
'~p)hxee <s4iethods on the (£Path

There are three methods we use to help us on the path, so
we can realize what we were talking about before. Number one
is self-surrender, where we surrender completely to God, or to
your Self. But that’s hard to do for most people. It sounds easy,
but it’s not. It means that you have no life of your own. You
surrender completely and totally, everything to God. Totally.
Every part of your life goes to God. “Not my will, but Thine.”
That’s devotion, bhakti. Again, it sounds easy to some people,
but it’s not when you get into it, because it means every
decision that you have to make is left up to God. You give your
mind to God, totally, completely, absolutely. And that leads
you to Self-realization.

Number two is mindfulness, which we were talking about.
Becoming the witness. Watching yourself continuously.
Watching your thoughts, watching your actions. Sitting in
meditation and watching what goes on in your mind. Not
trying to change anything or correct anything. Just observing.
Becoming the witness to your thoughts in meditation, and to
your actions in the waking state.

And number three is the one that I advocate, Self-inquiry.
Asking yourself, “To whom do these troubles come? To whom
does this karma come? To whom does this suffering come? It
comes to me. Well, what is ‘me’? I am me. Who am I? From
where did the I come from?” And following the “I” to its
source.

You can use any of those three methods, the one that suits
you best. But by all means, do something. Don’t waste your
life with frivolities. Work on yourself, if you want to become
free. It doesn’t mean you have to give up going to the movies,

'~P)he -^y/’Our ^Principles

or going to work, or anything. You give nothing up. You just
become aware of what you’re doing. You become a conscious
being. You become conscious of your actions. You become
loving, compassionate, gentle to all people. You stop watching
out for number one. Most of us say, “Number one, I’m
number one.” Forget it. That’s how you suffer. That’s ego. It’s
hard to understand, when you give up your ego, how you can
have a better life, but you do. Try it and you’ll see. When you
stop thinking of yourself, and you start thinking on your Self,
but yourself becomes Omnipresence, that means you’re
thinking of everybody else as yourself. So if any human being
suffers, you suffer too.

But, in a way, we differ from Buddhism. Not much, but a
little. Because the bodhisattva says he will not be realized until
everybody else is realized. But then they have a higher bodhi¬
sattva called the Arhat. It’s like the Avadhoot in Hinduism,
who becomes Self-realized by himself, because he understands
that his self is the Self of all. And that’s what we accept. In
other words, if you want to help your fellow man, if you want
to make this world a better world in which to live, find yourself
first, and everything else will take care of itself.

~ 270 ~

~ 271 ~

tZpta'p'pine&s
^out Zeal (^Nature

Feel the Presence within yourself.

Feel the happiness and the joy that you really are.
Feel it! You can feel it.

No matter how many so-called problems
you may appear to have,

no matter what is going on in your life, good or bad ,
forget about that. It doesn't matter.

Feel the Presence. The Presence of Consciousness.
The Presence of Pure Awareness.

Feel this in yourself Do not think about it—just feel it.
When you begin to think about it, you spoil it.

Allow the mind to rave on.

Do not pay a bit of attention to the mind,
whatever thoughts it brings you, whatever it tells you.
Pay no attention whatsoever to the mind.

Feel the bliss. You ARE the bliss.

There is absolutely nothing that you need
or have to become.

Do not search for enlightenment or liberation.
You'll never find it. There's nowhere to look for it.
When you look with your senses, where is liberation?
Where's freedom?

It doesn't exist.

When you go beyond the senses,
when you pay no attention to the senses
and you go beyond them
by observing them, looking at them,
and not reacting to them,
then you find that you've always been in bliss.

Bliss happiness is your very nature.

You are That.

273 -

Silence o’fj the <2pCeatt
(zptayrpiness q9s ^Unconditioned

How many of us are really happy today? Really, really
happy. Really, really, really happy? Now. Not because things
are going your way. Not because you like what you see. You’re
just happy because you are. There is no reason for it. Just to
serve Consciousness, happiness. That’s our real state of
consciousness, who we really are.

We’re really happy people. We don’t know it. We think that
things have to go a certain way for us to be happy. This is not
true. Not true at all. You can be happy when you have good
things, and be very depressed when you don’t have them any
more. Happiness has nothing to do with person, place or
thing. Real happiness has absolutely nothing to do with
person, place or thing. Real happiness comes from realization.
Realization that you are not the body, you’re not the mind,
you’re not your affairs, you’re not the world. When you can
drop all these things, you’ll be very happy. It’ll come by itself.
Otherwise you’ll have a false sense of happiness.

Most of us walk around with a false sense of happiness.
You’re happy because it is a beautiful day, the sun is shining,
the flowers are blooming, you go to the beach, the movies. We
think we’re happy, but if you search deep within yourself,
you’ll realize there’s a big sadness, a large unhappiness inside.
This is true of all human beings. As long as you believe that
you are a human being, it is virtually impossible for you to be
happy, really happy. That’s what I’m referring to. The happi¬
ness I’m referring to is beyond humanity, beyond good and
bad, beyond experiences. It is your real state. It’s what you are.
But again to experience it, you have to let go of everything else.
You cannot be attached to anything.

(jpfappiness <oJ k ^'out <^Jleai <&Nature

Happiness and Bliss are synonymous. It has absolutely
nothing to do with this world in which we live. In this world all
kinds of things happen. And we believe we have to live a
certain kind of life to be happy. We believe we have to have
certain kinds of possessions to be happy. It’s all false. It is the
happiness that will bring the good to you. It’s opposite. It is
the reverse. In other words if you want to be happy, happiness
is the same as abundance, health, joy, peace, harmony. These
things come to you as a result of your happiness. It’s the other
way around. Most of us believe that if we have certain things
we’ll be happy. But I’m saying to you, be happy first and the
other things will come to you on their own volition. Ponder
this.

Everyone wants something. If your mind stops thinking,
what happens? Some of you believe you will not have any¬
thing, that you will have more problems. But it’s in reverse.
You solve problems; you want something and you can’t get it.
But when you do not need anything or want anything, true
Bliss comes into the picture. You experience Bliss, Joy and
Happiness, when you don’t want anything. From what we
know, people want something and when they get it they
become more miserable than ever before. Leave the world
alone. Leave people alone. Leave everything alone.

<=p{non) ^.ourselfy <*Pinow (happiness

When you really understand who you are, you will experi¬
ence unalloyed happiness. Happiness that you only dreamed
about, happiness in the Silence, when nothing is happening
but you’re happy. Always happy, always at peace. All of the
gods that you have been praying to all your life, all of the

- 274 -

- 275 -

Silence ofi the <zp£eatt

Buddhas you’ve taken refuge in, the Krishnas, the Kalmias, the
Shivas, the Christ, Allah, they’re all within you. You are That.
There is only the one Self and you are That. Ponder this.

The knowledge of this brings you eternally infinite happi¬
ness instantly. When you begin to understand who you are,
your Divine nature, that you are not the body, you’re not the
mind, once you understand your Infinite nature, who you
really are and there’s nothing else, you immediately become
instantly happy. For happiness is your very nature. Happiness,
the Self, are synonymous. Consciousness, Absolute Reality,
Pure Awareness, are all synonymous. There is only One. It has
many names, but the One pervades all of space and time. And
it is the only existence and you are That. There is no other
existence. Awaken to this truth. You are the only One that does
exist. And you are Consciousness.

The reason why somebody really is not happy, is because
they don’t really know yet who they are. That’s the only
reason. If you really were aware of who you really are, your
real nature, happiness would exude from every pore of your
body. It’s just wonderful. Happiness is. There is really no
reason for anyone to be unhappy. People who are unhappy
take the world too seriously. They take themselves too seri¬
ously. They take life too seriously. They think things are real,
and they’re going to last. It makes no difference what position
you’re in right now. It makes no difference what’s going on in
your life. It makes no difference where you are, who you are.
The only thing you have to do is come to terms with yourself.
When you understand yourself, how can you possibly be
unhappy. Your Self is the Self of the universe. Your Self is
Consciousness. Consciousness is just being conscious of your
happiness, being totally conscious. When you’re totally

(^tajrpine&& q$s ^'out <^Real ^Natuce

conscious you have to be happy. Why? Because what we call
happiness is the substratum of existence. It’s the underlying
cause of everything. Do not judge by appearances. Do not look
at things and believe that’s the way they are.

We all want to be happy. How to become happy? What do
we have to do? Sit by yourself, go deep within yourself, and
realize the truth about yourself. Which is, you are not the
subject or the object. You are not the seer or the thing seen.
You are the witness to all these things. The witness, everything
you see. The witness is the witness. You watch, you look, you
observe. And yet, you’re not the observer, you’re not the
watcher, you’re not the looker.

You’re like a clay pot. A clay pot has space inside of it and
outside of it. The space inside is not any different than the
space outside. When the clay pot breaks, the space merges
with inside and the outside. It’s only one space. So it is with us.
Your body is like a clay pot, and it appears you have to go
within to find the truth. The outward appears to be within you.
The outward is also without you. There’s boundless space.
When the body is transcended, it’s like a broken clay pot. The
Self within you becomes the Self outside of you. Always
merges with the Self. As it’s always been. The Self merges with
the Self. Some people call the inner Self the Atman. And yet it
is called Brahman. When there is no body in the way, the
Atman and the Brahman become One. They become Brah¬
man, One-ness, Absolute Reality, Pure Awareness. They
become free and liberated.

We don’t have to wait until the body dies for this to
happen, it can happen to us now. You can become totally free
and liberated now, if you will. All you have to do is let go. You
let go of everything that’s been keeping you in bondage

• 276 ~

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Silence afj the Q?teatl

mentally. Listen to your heart. Observe yourself. Become
cognizant of your feelings, your emotions. Is this really you?
Are you really your emotions? Are you really your feelings that
you observe? Where do these feelings come from? Ask your¬
self, “Who am I? Where do my feelings come from? Where do
my thoughts come from? Where does my life come from? Who
is playing the game? Who is being alive? Who is growing up,
becoming old and dying? Who is playing this game? Who is
the I that is playing this game? Who am I?”

Just by thinking about these things all the time, something
begins to happen to you, something wonderful. Do not think
about the weather, or about the day’s work, or your problems.
For all the thinkers, who thinks? Find out who has the prob¬
lems? Who has problems? Find out who you really are, who am
I? It’s up to you to awaken from this mortal dream. You can
keep on going like you are right now, with the good things and
the bad things. Yet you live in a universe of dualities. Which
means for every good there is a bad. For every bad there is a
good. It’s a false world in which you live. You need to awaken
to this truth.

Always realize that you’re like the ocean. Any thoughts,
ideas, body, beliefs, are simply ripples on the ocean. Bubbles
come and go. The bubbles appear, stay for a time and disap¬
pear. The ocean always remains the same. This is like us. Our
true reality never changes, but the body appears and the body
disappears. New bodies come, they appear, and disappear.
Things come, things go. The ocean will remain the same. Know
the truth about yourself. Never forget it. Understand who you
really are. Be aware of yourself, always. The world has its own
karma. The world goes through its own karma. It has absolutely
nothing to do with you. You belong to God. Everything you see

< 3 pCa^iness oh tyf.out Q^Jleal (^Nature

is God. This is why you should be non-judgmental. Leave
everything alone. By practicing these things, you become
radiantly happy.

There never was a time when you were not the Self, Pure
Awareness, Consciousness. This is your destiny, to awaken
into Consciousness. Yet you can do it now, or you can do it in
a thousand lives from now. It all depends on you. It’s the way
you are reacting as yourself to the world which determines the
directions you are going in. There are no mistakes. Nothing is
wrong. Everything is right just the way it is. Do not try to
understand this or figure it out. Leave it alone. It will happen
by itself, by keeping yourself quiet and still. You quiet the
mind because of realization. Let it be calm. In all situations be
calm. Let it be still and quiet.

' The world doesn’t need any help from you. Aren’t you the
world, aren’t you the Creator? You created the world the way
it is. It came out of you, of your mind. Or else where does it
come from? The world that you are in, is a creation of your
own mind. The mind becomes still, the world begins to
disappear. And you’re in divine harmony and joy. Therefore
happiness comes to you when you stop thinking, when you
stop judging, when you stop being afraid. When you begin to
contemplate what is happiness.

All the answers are within you. Everything you’re looking
for is within you—everything. Nobody can help you but
yourself. Know who you are. You are the Power. All the power
of the universe is within you. You have all the power you need.
All is well, exceedingly well. It has always been well, it will
always be well. Act like a god or a goddess. Do not act like a
human being any longer. Stop feeling sorry for yourself,
saying you’re unhappy. Stand up tall. Know the truth about

~ 278 ~

~ 279 ~

<'Silence ofi the (pteavt

yourself. Become the witness of all phenomena that you see,
and be free.

(p'lafrpiness ps pteze and p^ow

Live in the moment. Can you be unhappy in the moment?
The only reason, again, you’re unhappy is because you’re
thinking of some condition or situation you don’t like. True.
You’re thinking about something from the past or you’re
worried about something that’s going to happen in the future.
That’s the only reason you’re sad or unhappy. But if you learn
to live in the moment, if you learn to become aware now, how
can you possibly be unhappy? Because now is Bliss. Just don’t
think. Experience now. Ifyou’re really not thinking and you’re
experiencing now, you’re in Bliss. Now is Reality. Now is
ultimate Oneness. Now is liberation.

But as soon as you allow your mind to tell you, “Oh, this is
nothing but a bunch of B.S.,” why do you think so? You are
thinking of a condition. You are thinking of a situation in your
life that you don’t like. You’re thinking of something that’s
wrong some place, someone, and you believe that’s going to
last forever. We do not change conditions. We change our¬
selves. As you know, you’ve changed conditions most of your
life, and when we get to a new situation everything seems rosy.
But then, after a while, you turn right back to your old ways.
The novelty has worn off and again, you’re unhappy. You
therefore have to do things to be happy. You have to watch a
lot of TV, or go to the movies, or read newspapers, or read
books, or get involved in some kind of situation, so you don’t
think. The only reason you get involved in all kinds of physical
material situations is so you’ll not have to think. You’ll be too

- 280 -

(,pta-pj/iness ps P) 0l,t pteal pNatuze

busy to think. But when you’re alone, when you’re by yourself,
when there is no one around, how long can you sit by yourself
before you become mad at yourself or angry over something?
And you turn on the TV, or drink a bottle of beer, or go
bowling, or do something. Even those of you who go and look
at nature, climb mountains, enjoy flowers and the trees, are
doing so because you really believe that the joy and the love
and the experience you see out there is external to you. So
even the beauty of the so-called world is erroneous.

You’re running away from something. You’re looking for
beauty outside of yourself. You have to learn that you are the
beauty. You are the joy. You are the flowers that you enjoy so
much. You are the trees and the ocean and the sky and the
mountains. It’s all coming from you. If you really realize that
you are That, would you run around seeking things? Every¬
thing that you want is within you. You are That. Even relation¬
ships. You look for a relationship with so and so to make you
happy, so you can enjoy their company, so you can love them,
so you can be with them. But I can assure you, that within
yourself is a greater love, a greater joy, a greater peace than
you can ever find anywhere else. It’s true. You’ve got it all.
There is nothing, no thing thatyou need from the outside. And
nothing can ever happen to you, because there is no one to
make it happen except yourself.

When you begin to think erroneously, you imagine all sorts
of things are going to happen to you. You imagine that you
lose your job, that you’ll be bankrupt, you’ll get sick, you’ll die
from disease, you have all kinds of imaginings. This is the only
thing that makes you miserable. If you can only learn to look
within. If you can only learn to dive deep within yourself and
identify with the Self, merge with the Self. I can’t begin to tell

281 -

Silence the (jpteatt

you the joy you would feel. There is nowhere you have to go.
There is no one you really have to meet. There is no thing you
have to do. You simply have to be yourself. You are the joy of
the world.

The question arises, is a guru necessary? Is a teacher
necessary? Think of that question. The definition of a guru is
from darkness into light. Gu is darkness and ru is light. That’s
why when you hear children saying gu gu (laughter) they’re in
darkness. They’re experiencing the world, so they say gu gu,
for they already self consciously realize that the world is dark¬
ness. But when you say guru, that’s the light. Therefore a guru
should always be a sage who takes you from darkness into
light. How does the sage take you from darkness into light? By
doing certain things in order to make you realize that you are
the One. Not by saying, “I’m the guru and you are my disci¬
ples.” By making you see that you are that One who has never
been born, who can never die, who is imperishable, who is
absolutely Sat-Chit-Ananda. You are that One. And you are
that One just the way you are right now.

If, right now, you are thinking about your body, or you are the
doer, or you’ve got problems, or there’s something wrong, that’s
not you. But if you’re living right now, in the Now, the eternal
Now, then you are that One, just the way you are right now, right
now, in this split second. If you think, you spoil it. For thoughts
are always about the past and the future. Even if it’s the past
minute or a minute into the future, you’re spoiling it, because
you’re not centered in the Now. So you are Brahman just the way
you are right now. The guru should be able to tell you that, and
make you understand and make you see it and feel it.

Not everyone needs a guru. A guru can be a tree, a moun¬
tain, a lake, a flower. You’ve heard this before, but let me

(^ta-^iness q!}s out c~Aeal (^Nature

explain it. When a tree becomes your guru, the tree is no
longer an ordinary tree. It’s you. You are identifying with the
essence of the tree, which is Consciousness. You are not seeing
the tree as a tree. It’s the beauty of the tree or the mountain, or
the lake, or whatever, that first attracts you. But if you just see
the tree as a tree, you’ll be disappointed. For the leaves drop
off, bugs attack it, people chop it down, yet if you identify with
that tree spontaneously, intelligently, that tree becomes you,
and the essence is the beauty, is the essence of your beauty. In
that respect, the tree is your guru. Therefore, a guru in the
human form is a being whose words in the Silence you feel in
your heart. And just like the tree, the essence of the guru is
your essence. There is only One. Therefore when you are
sincere in your spiritual practice, when you put that first
before anything else, when you continue to work on yourself,
automatically the guru within yourself, the essence within
yourself, like a magnet will attract and pull you to a guru
outside of yourself which is really yourself. This can cause you
to rise higher and become liberated.

You’ve got to stop seeing yourself as ahuman being. You’ve
got to catch yourself whenever you think something is wrong,
someone has hurt you, someone has rubbed you the wrong
way, when things do not go right at your job or at home. Do
not be like the ordinary person and react to it. And do not
believe that if you do not react, things will get worse. I cannot
tell you enough that every situation that happens to you is
necessary for your growth. There are no mistakes. Everything
that you’ve been through, everything that you’re going
through, is absolutely necessary for your spiritual growth. If it
does not look kosher to you, realize it’s your mind reacting.
It’s your ego reacting. And the way to handle it is just to

~ 282 ~

283 -

C Silence <rjj the (^teait

observe. Do not get involved by arguing, fighting, trying to
change things. Just observe. Ifyou can observe without getting
excited, then you’ve passed that test and you’ll not have to
repeat it. But ifyou get angry, ifyou get upset, you want to get
even, you’re always thinking about it, and you’ve got hate and
you’ve got animosity. Even though you move away from that
situation, you will meet that situation again and again and
again until you learn not to react to it.

The universe is a university to educate the soul. Before we
go any higher and awaken, we have to have these little realiza¬
tions where we begin to feel that there is nothing wrong. There
is absolutely no thing wrong. All the good of the universe is
yours. There is absolutely nothing wrong—nothing.

If you can only live in the moment and feel what I’m
saying, everything in this world, in this universe, will become
you. That’s why people like Jesus and others have been able to
say, all that I have is yours. Meaning that Consciousness is
Bliss, and Bliss is expressing itself as the world, as the uni¬
verse, as yourself. Live in that Bliss. Refuse to acknowledge
anything else. It appears that if you do not acknowledge
something, something will go wrong in your life. But you are
not made for something to go wrong in your life. There is
absolutely nothing wrong anywhere, so how can anything go
wrong in your life? God can be good and bad—whatever—in
a capricious universe. In a capricious universe, the moon
would crash into the sun, wheat would grow one time and
roses would grow another time from the same seed, when we
live in a capricious universe. There are not two powers here,
there is one power and you can call that God, it is All-Pervad¬
ing and there is no place where it is not, how can there be a
problem. For in order for there to be a problem, there has to be
God and something else, but all you’ve got to do is a little

~ 284 ~

(zptapjiiness ^'out e^ieal ^Nature

meditation, and you will see that there is only God as every¬
thing. There is no room for God and anything else.

So you say, “Where does sickness come from? Where does
lack and limitation come from? Where does man’s inhumanity
to man come from?” I have to ask you, who sees it? Who sees
this? Most of the world’s populace. Most of the world sees lack,
limitation, disease, man’s inhumanity to man, and this is why
these things perpetuate themselves, and appear to be collectively
everywhere in the Universe. But then there are the few of us who
step out of the parade. And they hear the beat of a different
drummer. That’s how it begins. They no longer acknowledge evil
as a reality. It maybe a fact, but whose fact? Those who are living
in a dream world. And again, all facts are subject to change.
Therefore, anything that’s a fact can never be reality. Reality
presumes that it is the same forever and ever without change.
Harmony is Reality. Love is Reality. Joy is Reality. Bliss is Reality.
You are Reality, just the way you are, not what you think. When
you begin to think, you can argue with me and say, “How can I
be Reality when I’m experiencing this and experiencing that?”
You’re thinking, that’s why you say this. But if you stay just as
you are, in the moment, then you’re Reality.

As you begin to think about these things, you raise yourself
higher and higher. And again, because you’re cleansing your
personal consciousness from all past karma and samskaras.
The inner Self, the Guru within, will lead you to the guru
without, and when you sit in satsang you will hear all the
truths which are spoken in the Silence and something will
happen. You will begin to feel that there is no birth, there is no
cause for this universe. It will just come to you. Situations are
not what they appear to be. The universe is but a dream. It will
come to you all by itself.

For instance, the rishis of old did not have pen and pencils
to write notes, or have tape recorders to record tapes, or have

— 285 —

<g £ilence afj the (^teazt

newspapers or books to read. Yet if you read the Upanishads,
the Vedas, you will find that these rishis, these sages, even
though they didn’t know each other, all came to the same
conclusion about Reality. For they were able to dive deep
within themselves. And they were able to see that this world
does not exist, the body does not exist, the mind is non-
Reality. They were able to merge their body/mind in their own
nature, which is Consciousness, Absolute Reality. They then
became Absolute Reality, Pure Awareness, and they wanted to
spread the word to the world. But they couldn’t, because they
realized the world doesn’t exist. So there is really no one to
spread anything to. Yet, when they think of themselves, all
others are included. It therefore appears as if there are others.
And amongst the others are certain people who are ready to be
liberated. And these people sat at the feet of the rishis and they
became sages. And that’s how the word was spread. Then
writing began, and manuscripts were written, and many
people were able to come to this truth through reading and
through listening to the sage. But now I must tell you the
truth. That none of this exists. Everything I told you is for
kindergarten students.

<3$bi$e in the <S^Now

Why should you have to do anything to awaken, when your
Divine nature is already awake? Why should you have to strive
or overcome conditions or straighten out your life? In the
dream that you are dreaming, you give importance to your
humanhood. That’s the only problem you really have. Giving
importance to your humanhood. And once you do that, every
other lie comes into experience. That you’ve got to straighten
conditions out, you’ve got to do this and you’ve got to do that,

< 'Zpta'frpiness q$s ^-om <^Jieal (^Nature

but they’re all lies. Consciousness has nothing to do. Absolute
Reality is Absolute Reality just the way it is. It doesn’t have to
practice any sadhanas, chant any mantras, or do anything.

Why not awaken now? What are you waiting for? Make up
your mind that you’re going to awaken right now, and allow
your mind to turn into your Heart, which is Pure Awareness.
Do it! Some of you are still asking, how do you do it? Through
Silence. Experiencing the Moment, the Now, the Reality.
Nothing is happening Now. No one is suffering. Now is the
only moment you’ve got. Abide in the Now. Everything is
perfect right now. Feel it. Don’t think about it. Feel it. There
are no yesterdays, there are no tomorrows. All of your so-
called senses have been transcended. No past and no future.
You are fully alive now. Right now. Enjoy.

Remember, as your mind starts thinking, grab hold of it by
observing it, and go back to the Now. Whenever you fall away
in thoughts, keep remembering to catch yourself. There are
many of you allowing your minds to run away. Stay in the
moment. There is no thing happening in the moment. The
moment is eternity. If you’re doing this correctly, you should
start to feel a joy welling up within you. A joy, a bliss, a peace
that you never felt before. Feel it. Nothing else exists except for
this Peace, this Love, this Awareness. Call it by any name you
like; doesn’t matter. You are That.

286 -

- 287 -

c zBatgutu

You come to sit with me to realize
that there is no teacher,
there’s no truth,
there’s no teaching.

There is only the One,

And you are That.

I am not your teacher.

There is no teacher.

IAM.

I AM THE UNIVERSAL IAM THAT I AM.

^um an$ <s§etfj-<zPlealization

Most of you have come here for one reason. To find
freedom from your everyday experiences, to be liberated, to be
Self-realized, to attain Nirvana, Satori, to become enlightened.
Yet, does the sun have to be enlightened? Your real nature is
moksha, liberation. You have always been That and nothing
else. But some of you do not believe this, do not feel this, have
had no experience of this. For this reason it is my responsibil¬
ity to see that you awaken. That’s why I’m here. I’m responsi¬
ble for you. If you realize this, if you understand what I’m
saying, you will let go of everything else. All of your attach¬
ments, all of your fears, all of your frustrations, all of the
things that you have been holding on to for years will be given
up. And when you give up these things, Divine Grace flows by
itself. And you will be where you are now, awakened. But you
don’t know it.

-289

(Silence crfo the <^p£eait

Why do you look at yourself as a simple mortal being with
problems? Always thinking about the future. Thinking about
your pride and your ego. Drop that. Give it up. So the two
things to understand are that Self-realization is not your
responsibility, it’s mine. For you sought me out. I’m here for
you, not for me. But you have to give up the rest. It’s up to you
to diligently work on yourself to remove all these false con¬
cepts that you’ve had for years, for centuries, for many lives.
It means you have to be totally honest with yourself, totally
honest, completely honest with yourself to see the way you’ve
been carrying on. To see how your thoughts have been ruling
you. Your mind has been telling you, this is like this and this
is like that. This is good, this is bad. This is right, this is wrong.
Being judgmental all the time. This is what has to be given up
totally, completely.

All the tools that you need are within yourself. But you have
to make the move to do something. As I said, leave the
realization to me. Work on yourself. Get rid of all the stuff
that’s kept you bound for so many years. You know what it is.
The fears, preconceived ideas, all these things that have kept
you in bondage all these years. Let go of them. Give them up.
Surrender everything. Which means you really have a job on
your hands. Yet I tell you all of the time, everything is preor¬
dained. Everything is karmic. This is true for the average
person who does nothing to find realization for himself. Then
your entire life appears to be karmic. Yet when you begin to
work on yourself, when you begin to see the truth, when you
begin to inquire all day long, “Who am I?” wherever you are,
whatever you do, and you go deeper and deeper within, all of
karma is transcended. Everything is transcended. You become
a totally free being.

You’ve been in this world for many years, and through
practicing spiritual disciplines you’ve come to the inner
conclusion that this world really has nothing to offer you. Even
though there appear to be good things in this world, you
understand and realize that there is also just a lot of change.
Everything in this world must change. Subsequently, there is
absolutely nothing that this world can give you. You have to
feel this inside. Again, you have to wonder, “Who am I? What
am I really? I never asked to be born. I’ll live a certain number
of years and then I’ll die, so to speak. What am I all about?
Where did this world come from? Who or what is God? Where
did all the animals come from, the bugs and insects, the trees,
the mountains, the planets? What is this all about?”

If you’ve been questioning yourself this way, then satsang
is for you. You begin to feel and realize that there is something
called Self-realization. When you touch it, it will make you
. happier than you’ve ever been in your life. It will bring a
profound peace. There will be no doubt in your mind about
anything. For you will have surrendered your mind completely
and you will be mindless. You have an innate feeling that the
real you is boundless space. That you are connected to
everything, and everything is connected to you. In other
words, you’re not just your body. The appearance of your
body is a lie. The appearance of the world is a lie. You soon feel
this. If you feel this, and this is true if people have only been
practicing spiritual discipline and sadhana for many years,
many incarnations, then you have to find a sage who has gone
all the way and is experiencing realization. Only a sage of this
type can bring you forward and cause Self-realization to come
to you. Only a sage who has realized himself or herself.

It’s up to you to find such a person. When you find such a
person, you have to trust that person implicitly, have total

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<£§ilence crfj the (jpteazt

urn

faith in that person to lead you on the right path. If you have
problems with that, you have to find another sage. All the
scriptures, all the books tell you that unless one surrenders
totally and completely to the sage, there’s no hope for realiza¬
tion. Now it is true that there have been certain people in this
world who have realized the Self without any help. These
people are few and far between. Very few. The average person
needs a sage who has gone all the way. Who has gone beyond
eternity. Beyond questions. Beyond the observer and the
observed. Beyond all phenomena, and realized all phenomena
is a superimposition on the Self. Which means your body, the
world in which you live, the animals, everything, the planets,
the universe, is only but a superimposition on the Self, like the
writings on a chalkboard. Then you can erase it and write
something else. You can draw a picture. But the chalkboard
always remains the same. Only the images change. And so it is
with a Self-realized sage. The realization is that everything is the
same phenomena. All phenomena is exactly alike. It comes and
goes. But the Self never changes. The Self is silence. No words.
There is no logical explanation for the Self. It is beyond every¬
thing your mind will think of. You can’t find the Selfby thinking
about it. Only by unthinking! Removing thought.

<^2.ove the <s§age; ^£cn>e the (^ebjj

When you find such a being who has experienced the Self,
you have to learn to love this person, totally, completely,
absolutely. You’re not really loving the person, you’re loving
the Self. You may see a person in the sage. But the sage realizes
beyond a shadow of a doubt, there’s no person present. There¬
fore, by loving the Self, you’re loving the sage. By loving the
sage, you’re loving your Self. The same thing. The sage is none

other than your real Self. The sage is you! But you don’t know
this, you don’t believe this, you’ve not experienced this. So you
think the sage is a person, a place, a thing. Consequently, all
you can do is to love the sage. That alone will suffice.

Now a sage, having transcended the body and transcended
the world, comes from a completely different space than you
do. And he or she may do things totally differently. But you
should know this: everything the sage does is only for your
realization. This is why the sage or the Jnani exists for
you—for your realization, for no other purpose. It’s up to you
to feel this, to realize this, to understand this.

You really have to learn to love the sage! It is difficult for
many of you to love at all. When you think of love, you think
of human love. And you think of disappointments, sorrow.
But when you love the sage, it’s totally different, completely
different. When you begin to love the sage you immediately
feel bliss inside of yourself. You feel joy and happiness. Why?
Because you’re loving the Self. The Self is All-Pervading,
Infinite Reality, Omnipresence. Knowing the sage is loving
your Self. There’s only one Self. And you have to really learn to
trust the sage in everything you do.

There’s astory that reminds me ofthis. One day Krishna and
Arjuna were walking down a path. Towards the evening they
became tired and saw a house. In the house was a mean old
man. Through some method he acquired lots of money. He was
very mean. They knocked on the door. The mean old man came
to the door and said, “What do you want?” And Krishna said,
“May we have lodging for the night and food to eat?” Usually
the mean old man would have shut the door in their face, but he
realized it was Krishna and Arjuna, so he reluctantly let them
in. He had a scrumptious dinner for himself but he only gave

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<3 Silence ofi the (jp6eatt

Arjuna and Krishna bread crumbs to eat. And he had a
comfortable bed, but he made Krishna and Arjuna lie down in
the corner in the mud to sleep for the night. When morning
came, Krishna and Arjuna were about to leave. Krishna put his
hand on the old man’s head and blessed him and he said,
“May you prosper abundantly.” And they left.

Evening came again. They came to another house. In this
house lived a pious, wonderful, beautiful old man whose only
possession was a cow. They knocked on the door and the old
man opened the door and when he saw Krishna he prostrated
himself and he said, “What a blessing I’ve got, to have Krishna
and Arjuna come to my home! My home is yours.” He gave
them his dinner. He made them sleep in his bed and he slept
on the floor. And he praised them all night. When morning
came, Arjuna and Krishna were about to leave, and Krishna
put his hand on the old man’s head and he said, “May your
cow drop dead!” and left.

Arjuna didn’t say a word. But he was thinking about this all
day. Finally he had the nerve to ask Krishna, “Master, I didn’t
understand your message. The other night when we came into
the house and this old man treated us poorly, was mean to us,
you blessed him and told him, may he prosper abundantly.
And last evening, when we came to this old man, this pious
old man who was wonderful to us, gave us dinner and his bed,
you cursed him and said, may his cow die, drop dead. What is
the meaning of this?” Krishna explained, “My ways, Arjuna, are
not your ways. And your ways are not my ways. You may see
me do many things which you don’t understand. Never judge
me by what you see me do. Only love me. You see, when I
cursed the first man, and told him may he prosper abundantly,
I realizedhe would come back many times, many incarnations

^(it^urn

and have a lot of money, and his relatives would haunt him to
get some money. And the IRS would come after him. His
relatives would want his money. He will have many lives to
work this out. He will suffer many lives because of his greed.
Now when I went to the other old man, I realized that he was
giving up everything for God. His only possession was the cow.
And this was holding him back from Self-realization. So when
I removed the cow from him, then he will be Self-realized. This
is the game I play with people.”

The same is true with us. Never believe the sage thinks like
you or does the things that you do. A sage may appear to you
to be an ordinary person just like yourself. But that’s where the
similarity ends. Never try to understand a sage, his methods
or what he does. Again, just love him. That’s all you have to
do. If you can really learn to love the sage, immediately you
will see results in your spiritual life.

The first thing you will see, you will feel profound peace in
yourself that you never felt before. Then you will feel joy in
your heart that you never had before. You will feel love for
everything, from the mineral kingdom to the vegetable
kingdom, the animal kingdom, the human kingdom. You may
be going through some karma, perhaps. Remember, for the
sage there is no karma. I know in some of the books it tells you
that the reason the sage does certain things is that he or she is
going through some prarabdha karma that’s left over and it
will be all finished when he or she drops the body. This is a lie!
These things were just written to appease the people. I’m
telling you there’s no karma for a sage at all. What you see in
the sage is a lie also. As long as you see the sage as a body, your
thinking is erroneous. The sage is not a body. Neither are you,
because you don’t know it. Saying, "I am not the body,” is not

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c^iience ofy the Qpteari

good enough. You have to experience this truth. What good is
this teaching ifyou can’t experience it? Therefore the sage tests
you. You may have many personal experiences with the sage.
The worst thing you can do is become judgmental. Always
remind yourself that the sage is not coming from the place
you’re coming from. Do not even try to understand the sage.
Just love the sage, that is sufficient.

Again, when you really love the sage, you will see very fast
changes in your life. This is more important than practicing
Self-inquiry, than being the observer or doing other spiritual
methods. For if you’re loving the sage, Self-inquiry will
become easier for you. When you have a hard heart and a head
made out of stone, it is difficult for you to love. Therefore you
look at yourself as an individual and try to practice spiritual
discipline and Self-inquiry, being the observer, pranayama,
mantras. Yet, the ego is doing all these things! This is why in
Advaita, no spiritual methods are required. No sadhana is
required. No discipline is required. Only to love. To love
whom? To love the sage as yourself. It’s all that is required.
Once you are able to do this, everything else will open up for
you. It appears difficult in the beginning, especially for a
Westerner. For you’ve been brainwashed to believe thatyou’re
the ego and everything that you do in your life comes from the
ego point of view. You think you’re making progress, then
something comes along that makes you angry and upsets you.
And you feel you’ve lost all your progress and you’re nowhere.
And you become perplexed and wonder about this and you
wonder about that. And you say you’ve been practicing
sadhana for three or four or five years. Nothing has happened;
twenty years, nothing has happened. You’ve forgotten one
thing; to love the sage as yourself.

<g£aUgum

^me @Meam (Surrender

Look back at your own practice and you’ll see that this is
true, to really love with all of your heart and all of your soul.
True love means surrender. What do you surrender? Your ego.
What else? Give it all to the sage! Become empty, totally free
and empty. Then I can assure you, you will feel such bliss and
it will never leave you again. You will realize that irrespective
of what is happening to your body, all is well. You will stop
feeling sorry for yourself. You will stop judging yourself. You
will begin to leave everything and everybody alone.

Another incidence of this is when I was with Paramahansa
Yogananda when I was seventeen years old. He initiated me
and he told me, “Robert, do you promise to love me, no matter
what you see me do?” So I smiled and I hesitated. I said to
myself, “What is this guy going to do?” And yet I felt an
overwhelming love and I said, “Certainly, yes, I will. And in
the six months that I was with him, I’d see him go into
different moods, become angry with certain devotees while
loving other devotees. I remember a time during Christmas
when many devotees wanted to go home to their families for
the holidays. And one went to Yogananda and asked him,
“Master, can I go home to my family for Christmas?” And he
gave him a warm smile and said, “Yes, of course, go home and
enjoy yourself.” Someone else would come to him and say,
“Master, may I go home for the holidays?” And he said,
“What? How dare you ask me a question like this? Of course
you can’t go home. You have no family. I’m your family. The
only family you have is here, your brothers and sisters in
satsang.” And he would literally scream at him or her and
never gave them permission to go home. I observed all this

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Silence of the (sfteazt

and I watched and I realized at that time also, I’m not here to
judge him, to see whether he’s right or wrong, good or bad.
And there were many incidences that he did in the ashram,
which would cause the average person to leave and never
come back. But I realized that these were tests to see if people
were fit or not. And so it is with us.

What are we really looking for? True spirituality is not easy.
It means changing our entire viewpoint, looking at life
completely differently. Trying to keep quiet most of the time.
Keeping your mind quiet, never allowing it to judge, never
allowing your mind to think too much on any one subject. You
learn to catch your thoughts. When the mind begins to
criticize, catch it before it goes too far. Realize the God within
you—your real Self—can never lead you astray.

Ramana Maharshi did many strange things. All sages do. I
won’t go into them. Suffice it to say, a sage comes with a com¬
pletely different background than you do. Do not try to train the
sage or mold the sage into your image, like you do God! In other
words, do not expect the sage to do what you think he should do.
Because after all, who is thinking? The ego! Who else?

Realize this. Always remember this. If you learn to surrender
to the sage, the sage will always be with you and never leave you.
When you’re asleep, when you’re awake, when you’re working,
you will never be alone again. Love will always be with you.

But again, this is only for those people who have been
through many, many spiritual experiences in their life, that
have an inkling of what I’m talking about. You can’t pull a
person off the street and speak like I’m speaking here tonight.
They will laugh in your face and go their merry way. For these
people have not yet even begun to learn the lessons of spiritual
life.

Only the <^felf Exists, and ^ou <3&te ^hat

When I say there’s no person, no world, no God, no
universe, no life, I speak from experience. Unless you have the
same experience, it’s better not to think, better not to speak.
This makes sense. For when you stop criticizing, you stop
speaking, you stop thinking. Only the true Self can emerge
from you. Reality comes into your existence. It’s always been
there. But you’ve awakened it.

You begin by not believing anything the senses tell you.
Don’t accept what I’m telling you. You stop worrying about
anything and everything. Stop worrying! Remember, all is
well. You live in an intelligent universe that knows all about
you and it can take care of you and meet all your needs in the
right way, in ways that you know not of. Trust it. Have faith in
that which you do not understand. Drop allfear. It’s so funny
to me that people fear something. There is nothing in this
entire universe that has a basis in fear. Fear is a human
emotion. If you have no thoughts, there is nobody to fear. It is
only when you begin to think and your mind draws pictures
for you that you have all sorts of situations that may happen
tomorrow or the next day or right now, and then you begin to
fear. And you fear for one reason only. You do not understand
who you really are! You think you’re a human being with all
sorts of problems. And you say to yourself, “If I don’t think of
these things, who will resolve my problems? How will my
problems ever become resolved?” That’s why I say, do not try
to think about them; just love the sage and everything will be
taken care of.

But the answer to all this is simple. Do not try to figure it
out. For there’s not time or space for a problem to begin.

298 -

299 -

Hence of the ppteari

mu

There is not time or space for fear to emerge. Time and space
do not exist. Only the Self exists—the Pure Awareness,
Absolute Reality, nothing else. And you are That.

I know that some of you listening to these words, you go
home and you forget everything I said. And then you become
worldly again, start thinking about your income and your
sickness, that people don’t love you, the job you hate, so forth
and so on. But now when you begin to think this way, you
have to catch yourself and think of the sage.

How wonderful it is to understand these things! The rest is
up to you. Peace.

Q4)ho q9s the < 3 Sage?

Robert, how do you tell a false sage from a real sage?

Y our heart will tell you. If you are a sincere devotee, you do
not have to worry about anything like that. Something within
you will tell you what to do, where to go. But if you’re a false
devotee, you will go to a false sage. Like attracts like. There¬
fore, you honestly have to take a good look at yourself,
according to what you are, who you are, spiritually in con¬
sciousness. That’s why I say everybody’s in their right place.
There are no mistakes. Everybody’s where they’re supposed to
be. No mistakes whatsoever. And there are no false sages.
Because a false sage has false people. So they’re doing what
they’re supposed to be doing, having a false teaching. Which
is right the way it’s supposed to be. So if you’re sincere, you
will attract the right sage.

We don’t have to wonder where we will be. It all depends
on what we are. What you are speaks so loud 1 can’t hear a
word you are saying! So you’re always in your right place,

where you’re supposed to be. Make yourself pure. Dive into
your Heart center. Sit in the Silence. Desire Self-realization
with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul. Cry
out for God. And you will be with the right people. Everything
will take care of itself.

Robert, is it possible for a Self-realized person to have some
negative desires? And thereby use his disciples? I’m thinking of
a dozen or so Self-realized beings I've met. There was one I can
remember who exuded love but he had one thing on his mind,
it seemed; he wanted to know from his disciples how much
money they made and tried to exact a check from them every
week or month. Now if a person became a servant or slave to
such a guru, who was exuding love, I don’t know if my calling
that negativity is my small-minded interpretation. Would that
disciple still receive Grace?

Such a being, a sage like this, is not an enlightened being.
He’s not realized to begin with.

Are you sure?

Yes. A Self-realized being never needs anything for himself.
He never needs anything for himself, never wants anything for
himself, but is taken care of by his devotees. A Self-realized
being who has a family is taken care of by the devotees.
Nothing should be said about this. It should be known by the
devotees what to do. But if a sage, so-called, talks about
money, and as you say, tries to find out what all the students
make, and tells them they have to give him money, such a
being is not a Self-realized being. It makes no difference to a
liberated sage where they live, what’s going on around them,
what they own. They do not think of things like this. Yet a sage

300 -

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f^. a f}. ul:u

<zSilence the ofteart

is no good to the world. He’s totally useless to the world. So the
devotees have to take care of the sage in their own way.

When you are totally empty, not wanting and not
giving—that is for the ego. When you become the Self, you
give to the Self. The Self gives to Itself. As long as there’s
someone left who thinks they don’t have to give and there’s no
need to want, that’s still the I-thought that thinks of these
things. When there’s no I-thought left, there is no doer and the
Self acts upon Itself. But as long as you have the thought, “I
have to give,” or “I don’t have to give,” they’re two sides of the
same coin. That’s the I-thought playing games with you. When
you give, you give without thought. A good example of that is
when I had lunch with Henry the other day. A homeless
person came over to us and asked us for a couple of dollars
and gave us a sob story. I didn’t feel that the story was true.
But it made no difference. Henry gave the girl five dollars and
we forgot about it. There was no judgment. There was no
thinking, what is she going to do with it? It was forgotten when
the deed was done. And that’s how it should be. We have no
business judging anything or anyone. Whether we do some¬
thing or we don’t. Then we leave it alone and we go forward.

Robert, you made a statement—if I heardyou correctly, I'm
not sure—that the sage is no good to the world. By that, did you
mean that the sage can 'thold down a job that requires thinking
in the logical mind, or did you mean something else?

There have been sages who have held down jobs, and who
have worked in the world. This is part of the bodily karma. But
the truth is, when all bodily karma is destroyed, there is nothing
the sage can do in the world. The sage is only good for transmit¬
ting Grace, and would not be able to function otherwise.

But true, for a time the two can go together, the prarabdha
karma as it’s unfolding and wearing itself out can go with the
sage. That’s known when the Grace is left.

Yes.

What is it the sage cannot do in order to, so-called, work in
our world? Is he unable to think with his left brain? (laughter)

There is no brain.

So, there’s no thinking?

There’s no I-thought, there’s no thinking about the world,
and about the needs of the world. The world does not exist for
the sage. So how can the sage work?

Oh God, I’d better be retired before I become Self-realized.

It will take care of itself.

Robert, it seems like the sages like Jesus, Buddha and
Mahatma Gandhi, none of them worked. They didn’t have jobs.

So what’s the point?

They lived, they survived.

Of course, naturally. When you’re speaking about survival,
you’re speaking about the body. When you’re referring to a
sage, there’s no one left that has to survive, there is no “I” that
needs to survive.

Then there’s no such thing as fear; that’s eliminated.

There is no fear in the sage.

You have to remember what a true Jnani is. The words
Jnana and Jnani have been used very loosely in this age. A

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~ 303 ~

Silence of the Qjfteatl

person who practices bhakta is a bhakti, devotion, a devotee.
So it’s easy to say “I am a bhakti,” no matter what level of
consciousness you’re on. But when you come to jnana, it’s
completely different. You can’t say “I am a Jnani” if you’re
practicing Jnana. A Jnani is a sacred word. It implies that you
have transcended the universe. That you are no longer your
body or mind phenomena. You are totally liberated. And of
course if you were, you would not say that I am a Jnani. For
there would be no one left to say that. You would remain
silent.

When we speak of such things as spiritual healing, and we
try to compare Jnanis to people like Sai Baba, Jesus, and
others, we would be better off if we would not compare at all.
Every teacher has their place. And every teacher did what they
were supposed to do. Those of us who are aspiring Jnanis
should not even think of those things. We should not have
concepts or preconceived ideas of what somebody is supposed
to be or not to be. We should rather practice Self-inquiry or
becoming the witness. Spend our time doing that rather than
comparing teachers or trying to understand why a Jnani acts
the way he or she does. The answer of course is very simple.
There is no one home. No one is left to perform miracles.
When you perform miracles, it’s an emanation of the mind.
Miracles are in the mind. There has to be a subject and an
object. There has to be a doer and something to be done.
Immediately you can see it has nothing to do with Jnana. A
Jnani is totally free of those things.

As far as the Jnani is concerned, there are no others. Others
are merely himself. So by being in a body, so to speak, a Jnani
becomes an asset to all of humanity. The average person
should never even think, “Should I or should I not help

<=£at(jfum

others?” but should make it a policy to help whomever is in
need, if they can, and not think about it. This is your karma in
any event. It has been preordained again, every step you’re
going to take in this body, in this plane of existence. You
should take no concern about this. But if the chance arises,
when you have an opportunity to help people, by all means do
so. But a Jnani has transcended that question. A Jnani is not of
this world, even though he or she appears to be in this world.
They are Omnipresent, All-Pervading, so their existence is a
benefit to all mankind. Just their very existence, because they
are Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Omniscient.

If a person advertises himself or herself, makes TV appear¬
ances, goes on the radio, writes a lot of books and so forth, you
can be assured that person is not a Jnani. That’s the first clue
to let you know. Why? There has to be a personal I to do these
things. In a Jnani there is no personal I. The personal I has
been killed. So how can the Jnani act like a personal I? And
make public appearances and do all these things? Think about
that. There is no ambition left in a Jnani. There are no goals.
Jnanis never go out of their way to teach classes. And the last
thing they want to do is to build up the classes, to attract
hundreds of people. It’s not necessary. Those who are so
karmically inclined, those who have paid the price in a
previous life through meditation, through concentration,
through searching in a previous life, will automatically be
attracted to the sage. Nothing will be able to stop it.

Everyone in this group who keeps coming back over and
over again to satsang, is a person who has perfected himself in
a previous life. You have gone through the stage of effortless
mindfulness, and now you’re ready to go all the way. That
doesn’t say it’s going to take one lifetime, but you’re very

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Silence o'fj the (cpteact

advanced, and whether you like it or not, this is the truth
about you. There’s more going on in your consciousness than
you can ever imagine. Why do you think you come here? You
think you voluntarily come here, but you don’t. You are
compelled to do so. This is your time.

So you see, a Jnani doesn’t go out looking for students. The
Jnani doesn’t go looking for admiration, or a following, or to
build a movement. But the Jnani remains where he or she is.
And those students who are ready will be attracted like iron to
a magnet. Even if the devotee lives in China or in Japan or in
Africa, the vibration of the Jnani is such that he or she will be
attracted, and sooner or later will come in contact with the last
stage of their life, which is the sage.

You, therefore, have nothing to think about, nothing to
plan about, nothing to worry about, nothing to wonder about.
You just have to be yourself, and everything will take care of
itself. Isn’t that wonderful? You don’t have to wonder at home,
“Shall I go to see Robert this week or shall I go to the movie?”
There’s something in you that has prearranged everything.
You have nothing to say about it. So why try to make deci¬
sions? Many of you are learning that when you keep still and
sort of get yourself out of your way, things couldn’t be better
for you. You’re finding peace, happiness, freedom. You’re
beginning to see that all is well and you’re no longer concerned
about the world situation, about man’s inhumanity to man.
Those things are important, of course, in this world of illusion,
but you begin to look at it from a different angle, a different
perspective.

You know it’s virtually impossible to change the world no
matter how men have tried. The world is unfolding as it
should. There will always be man’s inhumanity to man. There

will always be clashes of personality, conflicts, wars. This is
only natural on this illusory plane of existence. For if you
understand that this is a plane of duality, how can things be
one way? Can you imagine a world that is totally peaceful?
Where everyone loves one another? It’s idealistic and we wish
in our deluded state that it were true. Yet this is not the nature
of this planet. This planet is supposed to be as confusing and
as confounding as it appears. Everything is supposed to be the
way it is. Just to understand this is an advanced state. For you
realize you’re not saying that you’re not going to help others.
You’re realizing you cannot help others. Even if it appears that
you can. It’s paradoxical.

Let’s say you give a homeless person a good meal. You put
him or her up for a couple of days. You give them fifty dollars
in their pocket, and they go their way. A few days later, the
person is right back where they were before. Yet you have
done what you were supposed to do. This is why, when you
help someone, you shouldn’t think about it. You shouldn’t ask
what’s going on. You shouldn’t even wonder if you did the
right thing. You are doing what you are supposed to do, and
then you drop it and forget it. You do not become part of the
karmic game. You have risen above this. And as you become
peaceful, anger slowly drops from your consciousness as all
anxiety and bitterness and hate are transcended and you begin
to feel a wonderful peace, you begin to notice that those people
who come into your aura also feel peaceful, feel harmonious.
You’re not doing anything voluntarily. You have just risen.
You have risen to a higher state of consciousness.

A rose need not declare, “I am fragrant.” By its very nature,
it is fragrant. So you need not declare, “I’m doing a good deed,
I am helping others.” By your very nature, you can’t help

~ 306 ~

~ 307 ~

< 2 $ulence (rfj the (jpteazt

helping others, by your very presence. And as you continue to
unfold, you notice you are getting less and less involved in the
games of this world. You’re playing fewer and fewer games.
You leave others alone to an extent. If you can’t say a good
word or help in any way, you say nothing. And by your very
silence, you have blessed someone else. When you actually
become your real Being, when your real nature of awakening
comes, you begin to realize that there is nothing left to do.
There is no one to help, for you see that the whole universe is
an emanation of yourself. And as you begin to go even further,
you are no longer your self with a small ‘s’, but you are the
Universal Self, and even as you look at the world, you see the
Self. Again, this is paradoxical. A sage looks at the world, he or
she sees everything you see, but yet they look right through
everything. They see Consciousness, Absolute Reality. It’s like
a burned rope. A sage realizes that the rope is burned and it is
of no use to anyone. Whereas the average person looks at a
burned rope and believes the rope is real and can be used. So
it is when the average person looks at the world; everything the
senses tell them appears to be real. They identify with all these
things. They identify with situations, with persons, with
places, with things. Whereas the sage sees the same thing, but
is only conscious of the Self as the universe. Do not attempt to
analyze this. Remember, the finite mind cannot comprehend
the Infinite.

What is a Jnani, a sage? To come up with that answer is the
question: what is not a sage? A sage is never a yogi or a
spiritual teacher, or a meditation teacher. I use the term Jnani
and sage interchangeably. A sage has absolutely no teaching
to give you. If you want to have a teaching, you’ll have to go to
a spiritual teacher, a yogi, a meditation master. But a sage

never has a teaching to give you whatsoever. The idea is to just
be in the presence of the sage; that does the teaching. A sage
does not teach tantric yoga, kundalini yoga, hatha yoga, raja
yoga, laya yoga, or anything else. For all the teachings are from
the mind. Where else would they come from? They are all
mental concepts. The sage is beyond the mind, beyond the
mental concepts. So how can a sage give a teaching? A sage is
Absolute Reality, Pure Awareness. The term sage is loosely
termed. Sage is meant All-Pervading. The sage is not confined
to a body whatsoever. A sage is the whole Universe, All-
Pervading, everywhere present. So to be in contact with the
sage, all you have to do is think about the sage.

But there is no teaching to give. The teaching is emptiness.
When a person, so-called, becomes enlightened... I don’t like
to use these terms, they are so meaningless ... but so you
understand what I’m talking about, I use these terms loosely
... I make it simple for you to understand... but a person, a
being, so-called, awakens, the awakening has nothing to do
with the body whatsoever. This is why throughout history
we’ve had sages who have been kings, queens. Sages have been
laborers. They’ve been married or single. They had boyfriends
or girlfriends, whatever the case may be. Some have lived in
caves and shunned the world completely. Some traveled from
country to country, not interested in one place.

A sage is never looking for anything, for he has nothing left
to look for. A sage has attained everything there is to attain.
Total freedom is the sage, Absolute Reality, Absolute Freedom.
Freedom from desire, freedom from wants. Yet the body of the
sage remains the same. Not to the sage, but to the people
looking at the sage. The sage realizes he has no body. He has
no body. But the body of the sage goes through its karma. In

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<^>ilence of the (<pCeatt

order for a sage to come to this plane, to present himself or
herself as a sage, they have to take on a body. Otherwise no
one would ever hear of a sage. If Ramana Maharshi didn’t have
a body, no one would ever have heard of him. So this is true of
every sage that ever lived. They have a body in order to teach
in their own inimitable way. So everything that the sage does
is a teaching, so to speak. The sage is not a teacher, but
everything that he does is a teaching.

A sage kills your mind, destroys the mind. When the mind
is destroyed there is eternal happiness, total freedom. As long
as you have a mind, you’re thinking, you never will be happy
or peaceful. Impossible. For this is not a world of happi¬
ness —or thinking. This world is not a world of peace. Yet the
body appears to be doing the same thing everybody else does.
It’s like the example of the fan. You pull out the plug of the fan,
it keeps rotating till it stops. You pull out the plug of the fan,
it doesn’t stop instantaneously, does it? It keeps going for a
while before it stops, slows down and stops. Such is the body
of the sage who comes to this plane with the plug out. When
the fan stops, so to speak, then the sage disappears. He drops
the body and leaves. So while the sage is on this plane, always
remember he’s like the fan, going without the plug. There is no
karma being accrued.

There are many different Jnanis. And we can’t judge these
things. The worst thing we can ever do is to become judgmen¬
tal, compare, find fault. As long as we believe we are a body
and a mind, we can never really understand what a sage
is—never. It’s impossible. For the mind is not meant to do
that. There are also certain sages in this world called
Avadhoots. Avadhoot really means “crazy adept.” This sage
comes to this world to tear your world apart. He purposely is

< 2 §altmeu

here to tear your world apart, to see what you believe, your
systems. Everything that you stand up for. The sage tears you all
to pieces to show you it doesn’t matter, not to be wrapped up in
anything. In other words, the sage can go into a bar, see a bunch
of people drinking, he’ll join them drinking, be one of them. He
can get twice as drunk as they are. But they will feel the difference
by being with the sage. So what happens then, they will become
sort of realized inside, and start to pursue a spiritual life. A sage
may appear to be a fool, but this comes from your viewpoint. Yet
the sage has nothing to do with the body.

Take the example of the screen. You go to see a movie
called The Godfather. On the screen you see all sorts of
violence, murders, mayhem, confusion. All this happens on
the screen, blood falling all over the place. But is the screen
affected at all? After the movie is over, the screen is just the
same as it was before. The screen has not been affected one
iota. The images have finished and are gone, and the screen
remains the same. That is how it is with the sage. A sage
always realizes he is the screen. And all the images are a
superimposition on him.

Everything the body of the sage does is simply like the
images on the screen. Yet the paradox is the sage knows he is
the sage, with other words, with other names. He realizes the
body is a body. When you look at the sage, you see something
different. You see a human being. You see a person like
yourself. And you create a sage in your own image. You want
certain expectations with the sage. You expect the sage to
behave in a certain way, do certain things that you believe are
true and right. You believe it is real.

Whereas the sage is always smiling and happy and observes
you and watches you. Leaves you alone. Lets you dig your own

310

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(^ilence ofj the (3?Ceatt

grave, so to speak. The sage will never interfere in your life.
Remember, the sage is not a problem solver. All problems are
of the mind. What does the sage have to do with this? Nothing.
All works out of the mind. The sage is beyond the mind,
beyond thinking, beyond thoughts, beyond doing, beyond
appearances. This is why there is nothing more powerful than
being with the sage. And having a quiet mind.

Your job is never never to be judgmental whatsoever. Have
no opinions for or against anything. Why? Because it’s where
you are coming from. That’s how you see it. But when I speak
like this sometimes, it blows the ego. Because the ego’s sitting
there saying, “You can’t say that to me. I’ve got my own mind.
I’ve got my own opinion.” It just keeps you back really, if
you’re here to try to become enlightened, so to speak, awak¬
ened. You hold yourself back because you’re judgmental.
You’ve got your own preconceived ideas what a sage is, what
you are, what you want, what you need, and it stunts your
growth. This is why the best course of action is for you to stop
thinking whatsoever. Catch yourself every time you think. And
put a stop to it. Stop your mind from thinking totally and
completely. For all thoughts are erroneous. I don’t care what
the thoughts are, how good the thoughts may be, how twisted
your thinking may be. As long as you’re thinking, you’re
hindering yourself.

Again, some of you might say, “But what about my work?
I’ve got to think of my future. I’ve got to think of the present.
I’ve got to think of my bills. I’ve got to think of my family. I’ve
got to think of this and that.” There is a Power which knows
the way. If you but surrender to this Power, all your needs will
be met from within. All of your needs will be met from within,
always. But if you sit there being judgmental, say that you can

<sff)atquvu

find peace and happiness by doing certain things, it will never
happen. And the body will come back again and again and
again on this earth plane. Always searching, always looking for
something, but never just being.

A true Jnani is something that you can never understand
yourself. It’s impossible. You can’t understand with your
mind. For there are no explanations in the mind. Therefore,
you expect the sage to be what you are. And you will say that
he is just a person like me. He or she does the same things that
I do. Always remember the sage knows he has no body. Even
if a body appears to you, the sage knows one hundred percent
that he has no body. Never had a body, nor will have a body.
And the sage looks at you and sees himself. He looks at the
world and sees himself. There’s no way else for the world to
look to the sage but the Self, because he always sees himself
everywhere he looks. By seeing himself, I mean he realizes the
whole universe is inside of him. It emanates through his mind,
so to speak. It’s how it appears to you. You are told not to
judge by appearances at all. Every teacher has said this. Do not
judge by appearances. Yet most of us do. It’s up to each one of
us to do the right thing. And learn the truth about your body.

Do not become bored, bored with life. Some of you become
bored with satsang. And you look for new teachers, new
satsangs, new jobs, new people in our lives. We’re looking for
happiness, aren’t we? Immediately we’ll have happiness if we
do all these things we just mentioned. Nothing could be
further from the truth. It will only be a temporary condition.
This is why the wise person hangs on the Jnani in all circum¬
stances. They don’t look to be bored or not bored, no matter
what’s going on. If you’re being in the presence of the sage all
the time, it’ll happen automatically. If you get bored and want

312 -

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(^ilence vf) the <^teait

to change things, you start all over again. You’ll be born again.
You go to a new country, you find a so-called teacher, and hear
something interesting. Get involved with the teacher. The
teacher becomes boring after a couple of years, and you look
for somebody else. It never stops. Everything will stop when
you stop. When you become still and Consciousness begins to
move through you, becomes you, this is the meaning of, “Be
still and know that I am God.”

Be still. Stop searching. Stop looking. Stop being. Everything,
you already have. You are totally free and liberated now. So be it.

<s%eifon% <§Mind—the <g £eavch fiot ^tuth

We live in a world of duality. For every up there is a down.
For every backward there’s a forward. For every amount of
pressure that’s pressed forward there’s an equal amount of
pressure that’s pressed backward. This is duality.

If you get hooked on the world, you will always be disap¬
pointed. Why, therefore, should we quarrel with each other?
Why should we be upset with one another? Why should we
believe something is wrong somewhere? Because we do not
understand. If you try to figure life out in your mind you will
get nowhere. Everything will just become more confusing. You
cannot understand life the way it appears. No one can. If you
try to understand life the way it appears, you will become
insane. Take a look at the world. Has there ever been peace?
You cannot have peace in a world of duality. For every
collective peace in the world there is a collective war, and for
every war there is a peace. And so it goes.

If you look at your life in retrospect, you will see you’ve had
all sorts of upside downs and right side ups. Things last for

(sBaUfmu

awhile, then they change. Nothing’s ever the same. We
therefore learn to turn to God. For religions tell us God is the
answer. Yet no one understands what God is. What does the
word God mean? It is usually something that somebody turns
to when their life is in upheaval. When things do not go right
in one’s life, then they turn to God. But is that the answer? We
have had more wars in the name of religion than all the other
wars put together. When we begin to have a little wisdom, we
begin to recognize that we have to turn within. The only God
we will ever discover is “I Am.”

We begin to investigate I Am. In the beginning we believe
I Am is apart from us. As we pray, as we become peaceful, as
we develop humility, as we develop love, we begin to feel
something else. We begin to feel that our true nature is
expansive. That we are not limited to the body. We begin to
understand that this expansiveness is of the mind, and for
years we become involved in the mental sciences, realizing
that everything comes from the mind and the mind is unlim¬
ited. One day we inquire, “Where did the mind come from?”
And we come to the conclusion that the mind is the formula¬
tion of ideas, imagination, things. In other words we discover
the mind is only a bundle of thoughts, thoughts about the past
and thoughts about the future.

As we grow, we seek for the way to eliminate the mind, to
transcend the mind, to transmute the mind. For we begin to
realize it is the mind that keeps us earthbound, that makes us
think we’re human. And then there’s the mind that makes us
think we’re expansive, that the whole universe is a creation of
the mind. All these things are true in our search for truth.
There has never been a mistake. There are those people who
become involved in different yogas, in particular, raja yoga.

~ 314 ~

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C "Silence ofi the (^teatt

They begin to feel the mind is very powerful and can cause
everything and anything to happen. And so it is most people
stay at that level for a lifetime, discovering interesting ways to
use the mind, trying to become successful through use of the
mind, trying to heal through the use of the mind. Unless these
people find a proficient teacher who can lift them up out of the
mind, they will be involved in mind-stuff for thousands of
years. For the mind likes to play games with you. It likes to
make you believe that you reincarnate and that you go through
astral planes and mental planes and causal planes, that you
have lived before thousands of times, that you’ve had various
experiences thousands of times. These things are true for the
person that believes in their mind. Just as a dream is true as
long as you’re dreaming. When you are dreaming you will
never believe that your dream is false. When you are working
out of your mind, you will never believe that your experience
in life is false.

Right now we’re all sitting here, and you believe that you’re
sitting in a group of people and I’m giving a talk and every¬
thing is real. But the truth is, none of these things exist. It is
most difficult to go beyond the mind. As long as we’re working
at the level of the mind, we feel safe and secure. We learn that
if we don’t like a situation, we change our mind. If we want to
create a new life we begin to imagine it first in our mind. We
use our imagination to picture the situation we would like to
be in and then the mind will create it. Now this is true as far as
it goes. But it does not bring you freedom, liberation or
happiness.

When you play mind games you have to go through all sorts
of experiences. Yet ifyou’re truly sincere, as I said, ifyou’ve got
humility, if you have faith in the unknown, something will

^ a [y uru

happen to you. You may be attracted to a teacher, or it may
happen of its own accord, which is very rare. You will come to
the conclusion that the mind has to be destroyed, totally anni¬
hilated in order to become liberated. And you wonder how to
do this. If you don’t have the proper teacher, you may go on
for incarnation after incarnation, century after century, being
stuck in diversions of the mind. But if you have the right
attitude within yourself, and I use the word humility again,
and you are sincere, either a teacher or a book or something
within you which is the Self will tell you the way to destroy the
mind is by stopping your thoughts—putting an end to all
thinking, causing your mind to be quiescent, having a quiet
mind.

Once the mind is free of thoughts, your true nature, realiza¬
tion, comes forth by itself. So you want to free yourself from
thinking all thoughts. Remember, I’m not saying you want to
change bad thoughts for good thoughts. This is ftitile. It will
only last for a duration. You want to remove all thoughts,
arriving at a no-thought state. How to do this? You begin to
practice mantras, for it is true, when you are repeating a
mantra, you have no time to think. It is the only thought that
persists. And if you repeat the mantra correctly and are sincere
about it, your mind will slow down. When your concentration
becomes one-pointed, you go into a state which is called
savikalpa samadhi, when you concentrate on one point, which
is your mantra. This takes a long time and is a lot of work. It
usually takes many lifetimes before you go to the next state by
using mantras.

But a time does come when the mantra begins to do you,
and there is silence for a while. The time does come by doing
mantras that you experience great periods of deep silence. You

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317 -

(s^ilence ofy the (spteatl

merge in Consciousness for awhile and you taste the bliss of
eternity. This stage is called nirvikalpa samadhi. But it doesn’t
last. You may become proficient in nirvikalpa samadhi where
you can do feats like being buried alive for a week and then
being unburied and you’re still living. You may make your
heart stop beating and you look as if you’re dead, but you have
merged with Absolute Reality. But then it always comes back;
the world always comes back. And you still relate to your
problems. You still relate to the world. You still have a worried
mind except for the time you go into nirvikalpa samadhi. But it
doesn’t last. This is as far as a person can go by themselves. It is
only a rare few that go further by themselves.

Jp race, Service, an$ liberation

The average meditator has to find a Satguru, an enlightened
one who has passed that stage and the enlightened one can give
them Grace, so that they may transcend the nirvikalpa samadhi
and go into sahaja samadhi, which is becoming normal again
but always in a state of bliss, transcending the world, being in
a permanent state of liberation and yet back to your normal self.
By normal self, I mean you begin to function like everybody else
in the world, but deep inside you are not of this world. You have
become totally liberated. You have become Absolute Reality,
Pure Awareness. You have become all-pervading. You have
become totally free.

Many people ask me again and again, “Robert, what is the
fastest way to get there?” Many teachings are given to the
person. Usually when I’m with someone I am able to see how
far they’ve gone in their spiritual unfoldment and they
proceed accordingly. Yet there is one way that is above all

^aUfuru

ways. There is one way to get there faster than any other way
you could possibly have. And I usually share this only with
intimate devotees. The reason for this is because others will
take it the wrong way. Those that are not prepared to hear this,
it’s like hitting a nerve. Some people even become upset over
it. Yet I feel tonight that everyone here is very sincere about
their spiritual life, so I’ll share this with you. And it’s very
simple. It is beyond Self-inquiry, it is beyond becoming the
observer, and it is this: being of service to the guru. How does
this strike you?

Why? Jay knows why. Why, Jay?

I don’t know.

You know. When you are of service to the guru, you are of
service to the Self. There is only one Self. Therefore, you are of
service to your Self. There are not two entities, the guru and
the disciple. You begin to become the Self, for you are serving
the Self.

Every great sage has shared this secret with their closest
devotee. And it’s not for everyone, especially in the West. I feel
this evening that I should share this with you.

What do you mean by service?

Treat the teacher as you would treat yourself. In other
words, you find no difference. The guru becomes yourself, your
lover, your mother, your father. Your Self. When you think of
yourself, you want the best for yourself. So when you think of
your teacher, you want the best for your teacher. There are no
longer two of you. There’s only one. This is why many devotees
of Ramana Maharshi became Ramana Maharshi. They acted
like him, they spoke like him, they had all his mannerisms.

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319 -

<3 ^ilence afj the (fffteatt

They became liberated. Because there’s only one liberator, and
that is the Self.

So many of you have asked me the fastest way to get there;

I have revealed it. Again, I think this is very important.
Therefore if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Well, if I’m with Ramana, how am I going to give service to
him and be as he is, when it’s my interpretation of what he is,
my perception of what he is?

You have to surrender completely. That’s the first thing you
do, you surrender all of your thoughts, all of your ambitions,
all of your doubts, all of your apprehensions, all of your being
to the Self. You become empty of all of your preconceived
ideas, all of your concepts. It’s like taking a garbage pail and
emptying it out, totally and completely, of all of your precon¬
ceived ideas, everything you’ve ever known and learned,
giving it all to the Self.

Wouldn’t service to any form of life, taken as the Self, be
equally effective, not just to a guru?

Not really, due to the fact that when you are of service to a
tree and you plant something around the tree and you take
care of the tree, you water the tree, you watch the tree grow
beautifully. The tree is not activated to give Grace. Only a Self-
realized being can give Grace. Therefore when you are giving
to humanity, to nature, it is only an aspect of Consciousness.
But when you give and surrender to a Satguru or to the Self,
then the return comes forth quickly. The Grace comes forth
quickly. Again, only when you think of a Self-realized sage,
can the Grace come forth so that you become like the sage.

Didn’t Ramana talk about the sage Donatrea—that he had
twenty-four masters, and I think that included inanimate
objects?

Dattatreya. Yes, I know who you are referring to. This is
quite true. But as I said before, this is very rare, just like
Ramana became Self-realized by himself, and he didn’t do
anything. But this is very rare. That’s why it’s dangerous to
read books about sages like Dattatreya, especially for West¬
erners. Because it tells you in the book, like you just said, he
surrendered to the trees, to the rivers, to the mountain, to the
twenty-four elements, and he became liberated. This is all
good and well for him, but how about you? These are very rare
beings. Try to remember again, the only reason I’m sharing
this with you is because so many of you call me and tell me,
“I’ve been practicing for years, I’ve been practicing Self¬
inquiry till it’s coming out of my nose, and nothing is happen¬
ing.” Let me tell you again, that practicing Self-inquiry is an
excellent practice. If you forget about time and practice, it will
take you to the goal eventually. But the fastest way to get there
in this life is total service and surrender to the Self. If anyone
doesn’t feel right about this, tell me. This is why these things
are not discussed. I did discuss this with Ramana Maharshi
and he agreed with me one hundred percent. But he also
added, “This method is only good for ripe devotees.”

So, what do you think? I’m not saying this to you for
myself. This is why sometimes it is dangerous for me to say
things like this. Don’t get the wrong idea. I’m really no one
important. I’m just revealing the truth to you. You can take it
however you like. And I’m only doing this because so many of
you have asked me to tell you. And I think this class is ripe for
me to share this with you.

320 -

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(Silence of) the (fffteazl

Robert, does Self-inquiry lead to the possibility of the person
being able to surrender completely to the guru? Because I, at
this point, feel that it’s so far beyond me; I’m so selfish and so
unwilling to give up so many things.

Thank you for being truthful. Most Westerners are like
that. They have not been brought up with that kind of under¬
standing. The ego is very big in most Westerners. And I don’t
even like to talk about things like this. As I mentioned before,
it hits a nerve when I talk about things like this. It is only for
the few people who are ready to go all the way and become
totally liberated in this life.

Robert, if I want to let go of my little mind, I guess you’ve
shown me a doorway of surrendering my mind to the Self-
realized person. I’ve got to be willing to either trust or take a
chance, becauseyou know there are always people talking about
meeting gurus who turn out to be untrustworthy. So, you’ve
given me a kick in the pants that I think is good. And I may not
serve you, because if all these other fifty-five people here start
serving you, there won’t be any spot for me, so I’ve got to find
somebody else, (laughter)

I’m not particularly saying to you to serve me at all. I am
telling you to serve your Self.

I understand, but it tricks me into serving the Self.

There is only one Self. That Self is the tree, the mountain,
but it does not give Grace.

Yes, that was a good explanation. Because I wondered about
that very thing, and you really explained it well for me. The
difference is the Grace.

Most of you were ready for this. That’s the reason I shared
this with you.

<^Need for a giving fffuiu

Does the guru have to be in the body? When having Ramana
as a guru...

If you really want to make headway fast, follow one
direction. Go one way. You may find many contradictions
when you read so many books, and you’ll become confused
and even disgusted. To give you an example. The book by
Laksharman Swami, No Mind. I Am the Self. Many of you have
read this, and you’re so excited over that book that I read it,
also. I usually don’t read books. But I realize the contradic¬
tions, and for a person trying to awaken, the contradictions
can hurt. It can set you back. For you do not understand. I’ll
explain one of the contradictions.

Laksharman Swami claims that the only way you can
become enlightened is through a living guru. And if the guru
passes away, you should find another guru, because that guru
is no longer any good for you. It’s got to be a living form. To an
extent this is true. Yet if you read Ramana’s books, Ramana
Maharshi tells you, it is better to have a mental guru when
your guru passes away. So they asked him, “When you die or
give up your body Ramana, shall I find another guru?” And he
said “Just think of me. If you think of me, I will always be with
you. I will never leave you if you think of me. For after all, the
sage is not the body. So what difference does it make if there
is a body or not?”

That appears as a contradiction, doesn’t it. Yet it’s really
not. You have to understand where they’re coming from.

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Silence ofi the gpteatt

Laksharman Swami was talking to neophytes when he made
that statement—beginners. People who really never practiced.
So people who have never practiced or practiced little, are not
really devotees. Therefore if the average person found a
Satguru, and in a month the Satguru gave up his body and left,
they wouldn’t really get any benefit from that Satguru because
they were not in tune with him for a long time. For them it’s
better to have a living guru, so that the living guru can teach
them. But for the devotees, they need not a living guru. The
guru that they’ve been with will take care of all their needs. For
their guru can never leave them. After all, the guru and the Self
are one, there’s no difference. So you can see there appears to be
a contradiction, but there’s not a contradiction. It depends who
he was talking to. So when you read the books, it becomes
confusing for you. If you stick to the transcripts, you’ll be safe,
and you will make headway. Those three things I outlined for
you are very important. Sadhana, satsang, and the transcripts.
It’s easy. Remember those three things. Try to be at satsang all
the time, work on your sadhana or Self-inquiry, or whatever
you have to do, and keep reading the transcripts.

(^Robert on earning the
<^§eekei, ^)iscifle, and ^devotee

A “seeker” is a blessed person, who because of experience
in different lives, has been fortunate enough to begin search¬
ing for truth. A seeker spends many years, perhaps many
incarnations, seeking truth. The mistake they make is they go
from teacher to teacher, from hatha yoga to karma yoga,
bhakti yoga to kundalini yoga. They go from Christianity to
Hinduism, from Hinduism to Buddhism. From Buddhism to

(sRatcjum

Zen, from Zen to Tao; the seeker keeps going from one to the
other. The seeker has not yet practiced anything; they just
listen at different meetings. They read book after book on all
kinds of subjects. They become very intellectual as far as truth
teachings are concerned, and are able to discuss anything
under the sun; they can talk about everything. They can talk
about all kinds of spiritual subjects. Yet, they have never had
a spiritual experience!

This can be dangerous if they do not find an efficient
teacher who will explain to them what they are doing, for they
can go on like that all their lives, and go from one life to the
next, one life to the next, one life to the next. They will remain
a seeker because the path becomes interesting.

You know what it is like? It is like a king who invited you to
the kingdom to share it with him. And he lives on two hundred
acres of beautiful land, so you drive in the front gate and
you’re on the way to the king’s house, but you see beautiful
flowers and you become fascinated. You forget about the king
and get into agriculture and start planting new flowers. Then
you remember the king again so you start driving. This time
you see beautiful caves and rock formations, and you become
fascinated so you stop again and become involved with rock
formations and caves!

You forget about the king. Years pass. You remember the
king again, so you go forward. And this time you see dancing
girls dancing in the flowers and you get fascinated with that.
Again years pass. You never get to the king. If you got to the
king, he would have shared the kingdom. That is what a seeker
does. A seeker becomes fascinated by different teachings and
buys every book about that particular teaching and becomes
well read, but never has a spiritual experience.

- 324 -

-325

(^Silence the (jpfead

Now we come to the “disciple” or a seeker who has been
touched by a teaching. The disciple discovers Zen and just
loves it, but instead of staying with one teacher he goes from
Zen teacher to Zen teacher. Not like the seeker, who goes from
one teacher to the other. At least the disciple is settled down
and sits with a teacher awhile, then goes to another Zen
teacher and then to another Zen teacher. And they go like this
from incarnation to incarnation.

Now a “devotee” is completely different. A devotee has
found the path he was looking for and the teacher he wants, so
he becomes the path. He becomes the teaching. He takes care of
the particular path he is on. It becomes a reciprocal thing. A
devotee realizes the teacher of his path has given up everything
to reach the path, so he takes care of the teacher’s needs and
devotes himself to that path. What happens to that kind of
devotee? Pretty soon he merges with the teacher’s conscious¬
ness. He becomes realized. That’s the basic difference between
the seeker, disciple and the devotee. Any questions about
anything?

So the question is, according to how much I think I am a
“me” and I don’t believe that things are predetermined ....In
other words, I seem to think or feel I have a choice if I want to be
a disciple or devotee, or if I’m going to go somewhere or not.

It appears that way, but again you are speaking from an ego
viewpoint.

That is the “me” that is blocking understanding?

If you were not a “me” there would be no one to ask the
question. The question would not even come up. But as long
as you are the “me” then you think whether you have a choice

c sfdatijum

or not. Just the thinking about shows you are "me.” You
follow? So this is addressed to “me’s.” (laughter)

I think what is arising within me and what bothered me for
a while is that (another teacher) teaches that all you need to do
is to believe you are not a “me.” Teachings themselves will
perform their work even though you stillfeel like a “me. ”He will
say you should believe you are Krishna and deny that you are
Arjuna even while you still feel like you are Arjuna.

He has a point to an extent. It is like a razor’s edge. I don’t
like to say that. It gives new people license to do what they like,
to become arrogant and belligerent, to say: “I am total aware¬
ness, nothing matters.” I have seen many people with those
attitudes who were just beginners. So you have to be careful,
and this is why Ramana Maharshi was so wise. He taught two
ways. One of bhakta. Self-Surrender, and one of Atma
Vichara. Maybe both were correct, but to identify with the Self
is sometimes not easy. So you have to practice certain disci¬
plines or meditations or surrendering yourself to God. This
will make you humble, it will give you humility, and will auto¬
matically lead to Atma Vichara, Self-inquiry. Then everything
will happen of its own accord. We have to be very careful
especially with Westerners, not to believe “I am Conscious¬
ness” or “I am God” and “I am Ultimate Oneness.” We realize
that this is the Ultimate Truth about ourselves. But then watch
yourself, your actions, see what you are talking about. Do not
use truth to cover up your weakness. For example, if you were
a drug user, it is true that if you come to satsang, and you
understand Reality, eventually you will stop using drugs. But
in the meantime, do the best you can, physically, mentally and
otherwise to stop the habit. It is preordained anyway, but do

326 -

- 327 -

C^ilence of the gpteatt

the best you can. As you follow the teachings, everything will
take care of itself.

tump the @yuxu

It is now time again to play “Stump the Guru. ”
Did we pass the basket around to get all the
ridiculous questions?

<bR ££)ialogue with (^Robert

Some people wonder if it is good to ask questions at
satsang. Some are afraid to appear stupid. If you don’t
understand the teachings, ask questions. On the other hand,
if you come here with the right attitude, all questions will be
answered from within yourself. Don’t hesitate to ask questions
about anything at all.

You say to us, “You don’t have to believe me, you don’t have
to take my word.” But I think belief in the words and in the
teacher are very important, because there has to be trust to
accept the validity of the teachings, the method of the teacher, as
well as the general instructions he gives.

I hear you. That’s a good point. I’m referring to those
seekers who have been around from teacher to teacher and
they just accept everything the teacher tells them without
investigation. The way it should be done is, if I say something
you should investigate it thoroughly within yourself to see if it
has any validity. Do not just accept anything I say on blind
faith, but intelligently. Look at what I say. Feel it within

— 328 —

— 329 —

(^Silence afj the (ffffeatt

yourself, and if it’s real, something will tell you. And you will
feel something. You will feel love for the teacher. That will
come as a result of investigation. So I’m really speaking to all
the seekers who run from one teacher to the next, and they
believe anything. If the teacher tells them flying saucers
landed, they just believe that without investigation. So don’t
just accept that on blind faith. Confirm it within yourself. Your
Heart will tell you if it’s real or not, and you’ll know. Always
listen to your Heart.

What does that mean, listen to the Heart?

It means your Heart is your real Self, and it will never lie to
you. Ifyou tune in correctly to your Heart center, your real Self
will advise you and tell you if your teacher is good for you or
not, will advise you and inform you of everything you need to
know. Your Heart is the Self, God.

I’m very confused with my mind and my Heart.

Well, you know, the mind is nothing. The mind is only a
bunch of thoughts. Thoughts about the past and the future,
that’s all a mind is. But the Heart is a center of stillness, of
quietness, of Absolute Peace. When you rest your mind in your
Heart, you feel a joy and a bliss that overwhelms you, and you’ll
know. Surrender your mind to your Heart and you’ll feel it.

If someone believes in the saying, or in the book, that when
they feel peace, joy, happiness, and have attained this or that,
that’s the stuff that shouldn’t be believed or accepted because
you want to experience the truth.

If you’re really going to your Heart, it goes beyond belief.
The true Heart is the Self. It cannot fool you. The mind will fool

<^§tump the qffum

you. But in a true surrender of the mind into the Heart center,
you will actually feel a bliss and a joy that you never felt before.

Well that’s what I mean in reference to believing the teacher
explaining something.

In this day and age there are many teachers but few
disciples. Most people do not want to do anything, but they
want to become a teacher. The world is filled with teachers. It
is up to you to use your own discernment and find out who the
true teacher is.

Isn’t it true it’s really not an external teacher, that really
where the unfoldment happens ...

The true teacher is within yourself, and if you’re true to
yourself, your teacher from within you will lead you to the
teacher without, and you’ll both be one, and you’ll know it.

But even beyond that, whatever I have experienced, I realize
very clearly it has nothing to do with the teacher that I’ve
already found and studied. It’s always the Self. It has nothing to
do, when it comes right down to it, with outside teachers.

The teacher is also a catalyst for you to find yourself.

Actually, effort can only take you so far.

True.

You can’t will yourself into Self-realization. You can only go
so far, and after a point you become pulled into it. And isn’t that
the goal of the guru?

You don’t even get pulled into him. You simply awaken to
yourself. And the guru is a catalyst for that to happen.

~ 330 ~

~ 331 ~

Silence of the ofteazt

You said that it is the happiness that will bring the good to
you, that happiness is the same as abundance, health, joy,
peace, harmony, that these things come to you as a result of
happiness. Many Masters were not very healthy. They had
many physical problems.

Who sees those problems? They don’t see it. You do. They
see happiness and joy. But you see the body wasting away.
Find out who they really are. Find out who you really are.
You’ll see a completely different picture. It’s when you see
problems, ask who sees all the dastardly things in this uni¬
verse. We see them. They don’t really exist, but we see them.
So we have to lift ourselves up to the place where they don’t
exist. Where harmony exists, bliss, joy, exist. So we have to lift
ourselves up.

But they stillfeel the discomfort.

Who says so?

I don’t know.

It’s all your pictures. It’s all your world. The way you see it.
All is well.

Robert, I don’t know if other people have felt this or feel this.
But for myself, I feel a lot of times, I feel trapped between two
worlds, so to speak. And I know that’s all in my mind thinking. But
itfeels like I am completely caught between the spiritual part of me,
of life, and a more materialistic or a physical sort ofexistence. I am
caught up in my thoughts and my feelings, and I feel really
trapped. Ifeel both of them, sort of warring, two parts of me.

Yes, you have to resolve this when you get up in the
morning, when you wake up in the morning, first thing. Look

the fffum

around you. Look at your environment. Look at yourself, and
ask the question, “Who am I?” Keep asking yourself, “Who am
I?” and everything else will fade away. You will grow spiritu¬
ally. There will be One, not two. But you’ll have to take the bull
by the horns, so to speak.

I really understand what you are saying intellectually, but I
guess I don’t experience it.

When you first get up in the morning, deny the whole
world.

That’s very difficult to do when I’m going out into that world.
I’m really in that world a lot.

The world keeps changing. It’s never the same.

That’s true.

It’s not real. Anything that changes can’t be real.

Why?

How can it be real if it disappears? Reality is permanent.
Reality means non-changing?

Yes, that’s Reality. Since everything else changes, it can’t be
Reality. So when you get up in the morning, understand this.
First thing when you open your eyes, ask yourself, “Who am
I?” Just put this question and see what will happen to you.
You’ll feel something different. But you’ll have to do it every
morning. Just try it and see what happens. You’ll see Oneness.
Keep asking yourself, “Who am I? Who am I?” when you first
get up. After that you’ll see One Power, One Presence. You are
One. Everything will work out for you. Practice.

— 332 —

— 333 —

(sfjilence of^ the (fpteazl

■^tuni-p the Mum

You must remind yourself as soon as you open your eyes in
the morning. You simply remember every day that> “I am not
the body/mind phenomena. I am nothing to do with the world.
I, is really Consciousness, Emptiness, Nirvana, Sat-Chit-
Ananda. I is really Parabrahman. I am That.” Just to remem¬
ber, not to forget to remember, is the important point.

Do not think about world affairs. The world will take care
of itself. The world is unfolding as it should. Do not think
about your affairs. As far as you know, you are under the law
of karma. And the Lord of Karma, Ishvara, will take care of
everything. So don’t even think about those things. Do not
think, in other words, of the world as manifestations, and do
not think about the body and its problems, but rather inquire,
“To whom does this body come? To whom does the mind
come that keeps thinking and thinking and thinking? Who
possesses it? 1 do. But my real I is Absolute Reality. Therefore,
the I that appears to have a body and its problems, the I that
appears to perceive the world and the universe, must be a false
I. Yet where did it originate? What gave it birth?”

Then you can think of the power source, the spiritual Heart
on the right side of your chest. If you desire, you may see a
picture of your deity that you respect in the center of the ball
of light on the right side of your chest. Whether it’s the
Buddha or Moses or Jesus or whomever. And you watch the I
as it comes out of that center and goes up to your brain. And
then all of a sudden, you identify with your body and the world
comes into being. And the mind appears to sustain it all.
That’s when you catch yourself. You reverse the process. You
watch the I returning from the brain. You abide in the I. You
hold onto the I. You follow the I-thread. You trace the I as it
returns to the spiritual Heart center and disappears. Then you

keep silent. You just keep totally silent. If thoughts do appear,
you inquire, “To whom do they come?” and you keep silent
again. As you practice this every day, day after day, week after
week, month after month, year after year, something will give.
Something has to give, and you will become free. Free in the
Silence.

Robert, yesterday my wife and I went to a shopping center
and had some ice cream, and she asked me if I enjoyed it, and
I said, “Yeah.” But at the time of enjoying it there was no T.
Afterwards came the thought, “I’m enjoying it. ” When I got
home I asked myself, “To whom does this come?” But when I
looked at it, while I was experiencing it, there was no T expe¬
riencing it, there was just experiencing. Afterward came a
thought, “I am experiencing it.” At the time of experiencing it,
there was no T experiencing it.

Who was eating the ice cream?

There was no T at the time. There was just enjoyment.

Who was the enjoyer?

I don’t know. There was just enjoyment. There doesn’t seem
to be an enjoyer either.

That’s good, true. You’re right. There is no one there to
enjoy anything. There’s just enjoyment. When you think
you’re enjoying it, you’re spoiling it all, because if you’re
enjoying something, the ice cream will be finished and you’ll
be upset. There’s no ice cream left. But if you get yourself out
of the way, and there’s only enjoyment without a person or a
thing being enjoyed, then you can eat ice cream, do anything
you like, and you’ll always be free and happy.

334 -

335 -

(sjjilence of the ofteazt

Robert, is there anything you could say for when a person
who has a temporary loss of identification with their body and
mind, and during those hours the person has the sense of Being,
just Being. Is there anything that can be done during those
hours to help prevent the awareness orfocus slipping back into
body/mind?

What’s going to happen will happen of its own accord.
When you have periods of nirvikalpa samadhi, that’s good. All
you’ve got to do is keep on doing what you’re doing, and it will
intensify all by itself when you’re ready. There’s something
within you that knows exactly when it’s going to happen.
Everything is preordained. But your job appears to be to dive
deeper into the Self. When you feel yourself coming out if it,
pose the question, “Who’s coming out of it? Who went in?”
The person who went in it doesn’t exist any longer. He’s been
transcended. So who’s coming out of it, and in what form? Ask
the question to yourself and you will find that you stay in it
longer and longer.

But everything is right. There are no mistakes. So when you
do come out of it, do not believe there’s something wrong, or
you’ve got to stay longer. After all, that’s the ego that says that.
But simply watch yourself. Observe, look, be, and everything
will take care of itself. The worst thing you can do is to analyze.
Do not analyze what happened. Just watch, observe. The ego
is the great analyzer. It wants to analyze everything. It wants
to know. When there is no one left to know, then you will be
That all the time. After all, who knows? The Shadow knows.
Remember the Shadow?

Yes, Lamont Cranston.

Right.

the ffjuzu

“ ‘What evil lurks in the heart of man. ’ ”

That’s right.

We're all from the same generation.

I have a question. I have been reading a lot about a few

people in Ramana's time. Just by a look or even a hug -

There is a story ofAnnamalai. Ramana ran over to Annamalai,
hugged him for two minutes, and he became spontaneously
enlightened. And then he spent the next thirty-eight years
stabilizing in that, and then certain other cases.... So I was
wondering if you could speak a little bit about transmission.

Yes. Remember that Annamalai Swami was not an ordi¬
nary person. He was extraordinary because he had been in the
teachings many years. He had prepared himself and he was
very humble, filled with humility.

He was just a boy when it happened.

Yes, he had a joy in his Heart, and looked at Ramana as the
Divine Universe. Ramana was the whole Universe to him. So
he had something inside of him, so when Ramana hugged him
and loved him that way, what was left dropped away, and he
became enlightened. Now this is true of us too. We’re not
different from Annamalai, except that with us, we have such
things in our heads that keep us back from being ourselves, we
are filled with our own garbage. And when this happens we
have a long way to go. So we must first develop humility. We
have to develop love, peace. If we stop thinking so much about
person, place and things, the sage will give you a hug, or
whatever and it will happen to you, too, depending on the
person, depending on what’s going on, depending on circum¬
stances. There are no mistakes. Everything is in its right place.

~ 336 ~

~ 337 ~

Silence of the ^pteail

So, Robert, that transmission is radiating all the time. It’s not
that Ramanajust all of a sudden turned on the juice, to that one
person.

Yes, exactly.

And it’s just that the person has to be receptive and open so
that the transmission can be received.

Indeed, very true. Grace is always with you. There is never
a time when Grace is not. It’s up to you to receive it in the right
way, by preparing yourself. And the best way you can prepare
yourself is to keep the mind still and quiet.

How can a seeker maximize his serious relationship with the
sage? What can he do to make the relationship deeper?

Simply by sitting with the Jnani all day long. When you’re
home, where you’re working, think of the sage. When you
think of the sage’s form, the sage’s name, things will begin to
happen to you. Find peace. Try it. Then you will be with the
sage continuously. Whenever you think of a living sage, the
sage becomes part of your Heart, it’s the complete Heart. And
you feel the love of the sage within you. So if you think of the
sage, the sage will think of you. Whatever you think about,
that you become ultimately. So you have to be very careful
what you think about. Whatever you think about, you become.
Think of the sage, you become the sage.

Robert, in talking with some satsang people, some of them
say that, 7 cannot do much of Self-inquiry,” or some of them
also say, “I don’t care much for Self-inquiry, ” or, “What I want
to do is go and sit with Robert. ” Would you comment on that?

Well, what can I say? Actually, our being together at
satsang is the entire teaching. The words are merely a pointer

~ 338 ~

f§fump the @jluzu

to be able to sit in the Silence together and find peace. So what
you’re saying, Jorje, is true. Just being together does the trick.

What’s the trick?

The trick is to wake up. I call it a trick, because most people
don’t realize that all they have to do is keep quiet, and then
they’ll be awake. So I trick them into making a speech instead
of telling them just sit with me, and all will be revealed.
Thereby hearing the words, people believe they found some¬
thing out. But the words are to make you sit quietly and
behave yourselves, (laughter)

Robert, you’re saying that it’s the Grace that flows from the
Silence that transforms us?

Oh, yes, true. Grace is already there. You simply have to be
quiet enough to pick it up. When your mind is noisy, you pick
up the vibration of the world. Just like with a pool of water.
When the water is still, it reflects the moon and the stars. But
when the water is noisy, it cannot do that at all. It reflects
nothing. So when your mind is noisy, it reflects chaos, confu¬
sion. When your mind is still and quiet, it reflects your
divinity.

Robert, this weekyou said that the mind has to be destroyed.
And in the past you’ve said there’s no mind, the mind doesn’t
exist. So how can you destroy something that doesn’t exist?

To the one who believes he has a mind, he has to destroy
the mind. There is nothing to destroy. So it’s a question of the
person who is seeking, where they’re at with their mind. There
is no mind. No mind ever existed. But because people have a
strong belief they have a mind, just like there is a body. As
long as you think there is a strong mind and a strong body,

~ 339 ~

< 3 ^'Hence of the (tpteait

you have to do things to make it become less and less, destroy
the mind and the body. We have to sit around talking like this
many times. Depending on who I’m talking to and depending
on who’s asking the question, certain people will have to do
everything they can to obliterate the mind. Other people want
to be still for a while and the mind will disappear by itself.
Everybody is different. But everybody has a state of mind.
Obliterate the mind completely and become liberated. This is
everybody’s gift. You don’t have to stay where you are, you can
become liberated. It’s a gift to become liberated. But will you
do it? I mean you have to want liberation more than anything
else in this world. So think of the things you’re attached to that
come before liberation. That’s what I’m talking about. You
have to let go of everything. Let go of all your attachments, and
liberation will come by itself.

Robert, I’ve been studying metaphysics most of my life, and
I’ve never been able to get an edge on my suffering. And then
after I’ve been listening to you, there has been a progressive
thing happening. At first I was unable to identify with the
problems ofthe world, which was just a tremendous relief to me.
And then about a month ago, all of a sudden I was able to not
identify any more with the thoughts, the problems with this
person. And Ifound a place where I could be more peaceful and
watch this person’s thoughts happening. And that’s the most
freedom I’ve ever had in my whole life, and the most peace. I’m
very grateful to you.

That’s wonderful. You’re getting rid of the self. You’re
doing what you’re supposed to do. You’re making progress.
That’s wonderful. Keep it up.

340

/ wonder if you could say something about creativity. You
said something about the creative life. It is hard to reconcile
dropping the mind and using the mind creatively.

Not really. Some of the most famous sculptors, famous
artists, did their best work when they did not think. Take
Thomas Edison, for example. He used to sit in his rocking
chair every day and lose his mind completely. Not think at all.
And all the ideas came to him, because it comes out of the Self.
The Self of Consciousness is always prevalent. But you give it
back, because you’re thinking too much. Once the mind stops
thinking, Consciousness, the Self, appears by Itself as your
creativity, and you become more creative. So do not believe
your mind will not be creative. It’s not true. You become more
creative. Your mind keeps you limited. When your mind is
gone, you become more expansive. In any event, what you
came to this earth to do in a body, you’re going to do, to fulfill.
It’s all preordained, all predestined. It has absolutely nothing
to do with what you think about it, or don’t think about it.
Your job is to make yourself more peaceful and still, and let
nature take its course. Then you’ll find that you’re totally
happy and peaceful, more than you’ve ever been before.

Are the mind and the ego two separate entities?Or, whenyou
say mind do you mean ego? Whenyou say ego, do you mean
mind?

They’re both simultaneous. They’re both the same.

They are the same?

Yes. In order for us to talk about these things, we have to
talk about body and mind, the Self, and ego. There is only One.
The One is you. The One is the Self.

Silence <rf the (fffteail

Would hypnosis be useful as a means to breaking the
hypnosis?

No. Because hypnosis simply contacts the subconscious. It
reinforces your ego. You’re already hypnotized. So you don’t
want to double your hypnosis, (laughter) Because then you
have to get rid of the hypnotic trance as well as the waking
trance.

That’s how it appears that it should be.

That’s how it appears that it should be? How’s that?

That’s actually breaking the trance.

Hypnosis can’t break the trance. Only you can. By admit¬
ting and realizing there never was a trance. That you’re
already free and liberated now.

Robert > scientists and psychologists and other people, they
always try to unlock the limitations of the brain. We use only,
say, ten percent of the brain. If we somehow get to the point of
using one hundred percent of our brain, would thatgetusmore
immersed...

More immersed in the ego.

Yes, it is fortunate that we only use ten percent, (laughter)

You’re right, (laughter) Because after all, what is the brain?
It’s an extension of the body. And the more you use the brain,
the more lost you become in maya. So you don’t want to
expand the brain. You want to transcend the brain.

Robert, you saidyou ’re not the body, but yet every week I see
you and your body looks different to me. Some weeks you look

<s£tump the @yuzu

very, very young, and some weeks you look very, very old. Yet
I’ve read in the books that Jnanis have spontaneous transforma¬
tion, where they would get super rejuvenated. Like they were
ready to die, and then all of a sudden they look thirty years
younger and have many years to live.

That’s what you see.

But when the person is enlightened, and one with this force,
this Consciousness, would that have an effect on the appearance
of the body?

Only on your appearance. What you see is what you see.
The Jnani has no appearance whatsoever. The Jnani is com¬
pletely empty.

You mean you are the invisible man?

If you see an invisible man, then I am. What you see is what
I am.

Sometimes you appear to have no head.

Then I have no head.

It’s like the headless horseman.

Whatever you see is what you get. You get what you see.

Robert, whenyou see someone thatyou love very much going
down a very destructive path, how can you become detached?

You realize that the person does not belong to you. Belongs
to God. Therefore, if you have the right wisdom, you’ll do
something to try to help that person. But then again, karmically,
that person has been given to you for you to go through this
experience. So the correct answer for this, of course, is to know

342 -

- 343 -

<*ffilence ofj the (gfteatt

yourself. If you know yourself, it will take care of the person.
For your Self is that person. The greater you know yourself,
the greater help the person will receive. For it is only One, and
you are That. But when you separate yourself by saying this
person is doing this and I’m trying to stop this person, there
is duality. And things will get progressively worse. But if you
know who you are, then what will happen to this person is
what is supposed to happen. I know that’s hard. Sometimes
you want to grab the person and shake them, and you want to
interfere and do something for them. Yet if we could only
remember that everything is in its right place and see who we
are, that would take care of everything.

We’ve never done things like this before. We’ve always
taken action. And sometimes the action seems to work. For
we’ve halted a certain situation that appears to be terrible,
going in terrible directions, and we’ve put a stop to it. This is
only temporary. Whatever the person has to go through, they
will go through, one way or the other. The only relief is to
awaken. Consequently, when you awaken, you will see things
differently. And this is how you help the person.

Robert, what causes a person to display self-righteous anger
to defend another person or a cause? Can you explain?

It’s all ego. What else? Only the ego is self-righteous. Only
the ego goes for causes. But if you understand what I was
talking about today, if you understand slightly how this
universe works, you will see that going for causes is not the
solution. It appears to be a solution, but it is a temporary
solution. Go back in retrospect and see how many justifiable
causes there have been in this world since the beginning of
time. There have always been causes, righteous causes. Causes

(gfjtumjj the fffum

for peace arid justice. Has the world become any better? Take
a look at this world. And yet, the people who are fighting for
these causes are necessary. This is their dharma, to do what
they’re doing, I suppose.

But for the people who come to meetings like this, you have
been in this type of teaching for many incarnations. This is
why you are able to comprehend something of what I’m
talking to you about. The average person on the street has no
interest in anything like this. The average activist has nothing
to do with things like this. They would have no interest. But
you are here. Therefore there is something in your Heart that
wants to unfold and become Self-realized and become free.

If I think it enables me to sit in Silence before going to work
in the morning, should I actively seek to be transferred closer to
home? Or, should I just work on “Who am I?” and trust that
right action will take place and my job will be where it's
supposed to be, and I should just meekly go where I’m told.

We don’t want to be meek, and we don’t want to be self-
righteous. We want to be the Self, period. Therefore, if you can
slow down your mind by allowing it to rest in the Self to an
extent, by removing thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and going to
a higher plateau by inquiring, “Who am I? To whom do these
things come?” then you’ll be safe.

But if you see that you cannot do this yet, if you’re afraid
you’ll get fired from your job, you won’t have any money, or
go to the poorhouse, you’ll become a homeless person, then by
all means you have to do what you have to do. So you have two
choices. Either discover who you are, what your true nature is,
by understanding that there is a Power that takes care of you,
the Power that knows the way, that will always love you and

~ 344 ~

-345

< 2 ?silence off the (fffCeavt

put you in the right place. Or, you go where you have to go,
and do what you have to do. The choice is always yours. There
is not one answer or one choice to this question. It depends on
the person, where they are, where you’re at.

If I took on a person from the street and told her every¬
thing will go well with you, don’t worry, you don’t have to beg,
you don’t have to steal, that person may starve to death. For
that person’s karma is to steal and to beg. And we have no
right to tell a person how to live. But if that person was able to
see the light, so to speak, where the truth is, that they are not
the doer, they are not the body, they are not the mind, then
they will be lifted up from where they are into a higher state of
consciousness and will be taken care of. So you know where
you are by the type of thoughts that come into your head. By
the type of feelings and emotions that come to you. By how
you feel everyday. Take the right action.

There’s something within you that knows what to do. There
is a Power greater than you, that knows how to take care of
you without your help. All you’ve got to do is to surrender to
it. Surrender your thoughts, your mind, your ego, to the
Current That Knows The Way. It will take care of you. It will
take better care of you than you can ever imagine. Most people
are under the mistaken impression that if their thoughts stop,
they will vegetate and become a vegetable. On the contrary,
you will become spontaneous. You will think just enough to
take care of the moment, and everything will be taken care of
for you. Try it. We always think we’re very important. And we
have to think. Only remember the cliche, “I think, therefore I
am.” It should be, “I am, therefore I don’t have to think.”
(laughter)

(ffftump the @/tutu

When you come in contact with homelessness that you
mentioned before, perhaps natural disasters or difficulties that
people are going through in different parts of the world or in
front of you, what arouses in you, in your state? Does compas¬
sion arouse in you? Or, is it arbitrary to you? Meaningless to
you? Other people suffering, how do you relate to that, to
suffering?

Both are correct. I have a great compassion even though it’s
meaningless. So I get in there and help. I will give ten dollars
to a homeless person. I’ll help people in the city. If I’m there I
will be part of it. But realize it’s meaningless. I’m not the doer.
That which appears as a body will do what has to be done. But
there is no thought behind it. I do not consider I’m doing
something good, I’m doing something bad, I’m helping
someone, I’m not helping someone. In reality, no one is doing
anything.

What is the so-called blue pearl or the sesame seed?

You mean what Swami Muktananda refers to?

Yes. I heard it referred to by other Swamis or whatever.

The blue pearl is a point of consciousness. Ramana
Maharshi uses the right side of the Heart, in the right side of
the chest where the Heart, which is Consciousness, resides. So
the blue pearl is the same thing. Blue pearl, white pearl, grey
pearl, the right Heart, left Heart, it’s all the same. It’s just a
point of reference. It has no real significance. It’s a place where
you concentrate for the beginner. A beginning student needs
to concentrate on a point in the body to become one-pointed,
so they stop thinking. So they concentrate on the imaginary
blue pearl, or in the Heart in the right side of the chest, or

~ 346 ~

~ 347 ~

Silence the (*pfeatt

between the eyebrows, or your navel. And that just makes you
one-pointed. When you’re one-pointed you can give up all
that, and stop thinking all together. Then you become totally
free. Catch yourself. What are you thinking about? It’s those
very thoughts that keep you from awakening. Always catch
yourself thinking. And ask yourself, “To whom do these
thoughts come?” Even if they’re good thoughts. Makes no
difference.

Robert, if you see a dream, and a lot of spiritual conditions

and religions say that you learn by your dreams, that they guide

you. What about this?

There are three states of consciousness, so to speak. The
waking, the sleeping, and the dreaming. The deep sleep is
when you are Self-realized. There are no thoughts, but you are
unconscious of this fact. The dream state is like this. When
you are dreaming, you are simply in another state of con¬
sciousness that appears very real to you, and is real as long as
you are dreaming. And when you awaken from the dream you
are in this state of consciousness, which is also a dream.
Therefore, what you want to do is to remove all of the dream¬
ing completely and totally, and become absolutely free.

So when you wake up in the morning and you remember
your dream ask yourself, “Who dreamt?” And you’ll say, “I
dreamt.” Then you’ll realize the dream is part of the “I” again.
So inquire, “Who am I?” or, “Where did this I come from?”
And follow the I-thread to the source by repeating again and
again to yourself, “Who am 1? Who am I?” Which really
means, “What is the source of the I that has these dreams?”
And one day the 1 will go back into the Heart, into the Heart
center which is Consciousness Itself, and you’ll be free of all

( l^tumf) the fffu'tu

dreams. But your dreams should not be taken too seriously. It
is like this life. You’re dreaming right now that you are a
mortal being. You go through many experiences. You have
fears. You have happiness. You have all sorts of emotions. If I
tell you you’re dreaming this, you won’t believe me. You tell
me, “Robert, how can I be dreaming? I’m living it.” I tell you,
“You’re dreaming.” If you listen to me you will do what you
have to do to get out of the dream by inquiring, “Who am I?
Where did I come from?” So when you’re having a dream at
night, it is the same thing. It’s merely another dream. But you
awaken faster. And then you’re in this dream. So stop dream¬
ing completely and awaken and be free.

Is there any difference for visions and dreams?

Oh, no. A dream is like this. The only difference is this is
longer. It seems to last longer. But otherwise it’s all a mortal
dream. When you’re dreaming, that’s your world for now.
You’re not conscious through your sleeping or the waking
world. But you believe the dream is a waking world. When you
wake up, it changes, and this becomes a waking world. But
there’s no real difference. They’re both the same.

And visions are part of the dream?

Visions are all part of the imagination. They’re part of the
dream. They’re a little higher than a dream. But they are in the
dream category. Because after all, who is having the vision?
The real Self does not need any visions. So a vision is mani¬
fested by the mind. Yet as long as you are in your body, you’ll
have dreams and visions sometimes. But when you are really
awake, you will be the witness to your visions, to your dreams,
and also to this world.

348 -

-349

< 2 ^tump the qffutu

Robert, when the four principles came to you, was it a dream
or a vision, and how do you distinguish between the two?

Well, I don’t really know, to tell you the truth. I’m usually
aware of what’s going on, so all the time I was aware of the
vision/dreams taking place.

Including this time.

Yes, I realized I was doing all these things. It was like I was
watching everything taking place. But there was never a time
when I actually became the dream or the vision.

Or felt totally caught up in it? You were always observing?

Right, I was always observing. But it was like an omnipres¬
ent observer.

Could you tell us again—I remember a long time ago, you
talked about a vision that you frequently had, in which you
would encounter these entities.

Oh, yes. I haven’t had that vision in a long time. I had a vision
that I was flying through the air and I went to Arunachala, the
mountain. I went through the mountain, it was hollow inside.
And when I landed in the middle of the mountain, there was
Buddha, Krishna, Ramana, Nisargadatta, and many others that
I didn’t recognize. We all formed a circle. We smiled at each
other and we walked toward each other, until we became one
blazing light. And the light turned into a lingam. And then I
opened my eyes. But I was aware that I was having a vision.
And that’s it.

And that came to you many times, right?

It used to. It’s stopped now.

Did you do f elf-inquiry with that?

No. I’ve never done Self-inquiry, (much laughter)

Why do you recommend it then?

Because it’s the way to go.

You're a card.

I’m the whole deck.

Why do you say you’ve never done it?

Why do I need to do it?

Well, if you studied with these people from the East, my
understanding is that that’s what they teach.

I didn’t go to them for a teaching. I went to confirm my
own experiences.

But you said you went to Paramahansa.

Sure, because I was a kid. I had my experiences when I was
fourteen years old. And I didn’t understand what was going
on. So Paramahansa Yogananda explained it to me, and he
sent me to India to see Ramana, who explained it further.

Ramana didn’t suggest that you do Self-inquiry?

No.

Or “Who am I?”

Never did it.

You didn’t need it. You were already...

Whatever.

~ 350 ~

351

Silence of the t^pteatl

How did Ramana confirm your unitive experience?

With a smile. And most of the things we talked about were
mundane.

He just knew that you knew, and smiled?

I have no idea what he knew.

How did you receive his smile?

I smiled back. Then for the rest of the time he inquired
about my needs. And he wanted me to tell him about New
York.

What did you tell him about New York?

I said, “New York, New York, it’s a wonderful town.”
(laughter)

Robert, is it just insight that you can understand how direct
and how powerful Self-inquiry is? Is it just wisdom?

I may make a joke about it, but it works.

So, it’s through some kind of inner wisdom that you know?

Definitely.

So once again, Self-inquiry is ... you could breathe in by
saying, “Who am I?” exhale by saying...

No, that’s not Self-inquiry. Self-inquiry is when you
inquire, “Who am I?”

And take it to the Source.

The source of existence. The source of the “I.”

<y£f um p the qyfutu

Last Thursday ybu had us go through an exercise which you
have us do periodically.

Yes, breathe in saying “I,” and exhale saying “Am.”

I remember the one she’s talking about. You used to also
teach us one where we would say, “Who am I?” on the inhale.

Oh yes. When you inhale you say, “Who am I?” before
exhaling you say, “I am Consciousness,” and when you exhale
you say, “I am not the body.”

I thought you weren’t supposed to answer that question, just
leave it silent and open.

That’s the other meditation.

So, the question, “Who am I?” is Self-inquiry?

Yes.

That experience, God knows what it’s like, but conceptually
it seems like it would be self-authenticated.

It’s self-authenticated, but I was a kid. So I felt all these
things, and I thought I was going crazy. So I went to find out
what was going on.

Even when you’re not a kid, you want to understand.

If you’re already grown up you can read the books and you
can do other things. But in my day there were no teachers
except for Joel Goldsmith and Paramahansa Yogananda and
people like them...

Was the bliss of the Self part of the experience, even though
you thought you were going crazy?

352 -

- 353 -

<yf>itence of the (fffteatt

Oh yes, of course. By going crazy I mean I no longer
conformed to my environment. I didn’t care about school, I
didn’t care about my parents, I was just radiantly happy being
by myself. I stopped associating with certain friends.

Why would you need that confirmed? That’s self-sufficient.

It’s self-sufficient, but I didn’t know what it was.

Why do you have to know? Does it require some idea about
it?

Because I was still in body consciousness. And the body’s
got to know. Inquiring minds have to know.

So what you were looking for was a frame of reference, more
or less?

Yes, because there was no one close by that I could talk to.
And if I did what Ramana did, they would have put me in a
psychiatric ward.

Did Yogananda send you directly to Ramana?

He suggested that I go to him.

Had you heard of him before?

Yes, I wanted to become a monk in Self-realization.
Yogananda discouraged me.

Why did Yogananda discourage you from becoming a monk?

He told me that’s not my path. It’s interesting. Whenever
I speak of my experiences, people want me to be eaten by
snakes, spiders to bite me, they want me to waste away. Then
they think I’m a great Soul.

< 3 §tump the fffum

You just haven’t suffered enough. Is that true? People really
think...

Because they read the books of certain saints, and they
think certain saints have gone through certain experiences, so
everybody has to go through those experiences. That’s why I
don’t talk about myself too much. The truth is, of course, if
you really want to know about this body and about the Self in
me, know your Self. Find out first who you are. Then you’ll
know all about me. Otherwise, you’ll see me as you see
yourself. Do you see what I’m saying?

If you meet a con-man, the con-man’s going to look at you
and think you’re a con-man too. A con-man believes every¬
body’s a con-man. If you meet a person who’s filled with love,
they will see you as love also. So that’s why I say, whatever you
are, I am a mirror for you, and you’re only seeing yourself.

That’s so for everything, though. Not just for you.

For everything, of course.

So what you’re saying is, you create your own reality.

Where you are right now, the world that you’re seeing is the
world that you’re creating.

But how does that tie in with everything being predestined?

Everything is predestined.

So you’re predestined to create your reality as it is.

That’s the way it goes.

That seems paradoxical.

Of course it does. It wouldn’t be a truth teaching if it

~ 354 ~

~ 355 ~

< 3 Alienee ofy the (pCeatt

weren’t paradoxical. Everything is preordained if you go to
work on yourself to lift yourself up and become free.

There’s nothingyou can do about it, and yet you have to try
to do something about it.

Exactly.

Why is that?

That’s the game. And if you try to figure it out, you can’t. So
don’t try.

And that means that when one becomes realized, everything
that’s preordained doesn’t exist anymore, right?

Right. When one becomes realized, the whole game is over.
There’s nobody to become realized. There’s nobody that’s not
realized. There’s no universe, there’s no God. There are no
others. All is well.

Or, nothing is well, as the case may be.

Touche.

Robert, it seems like it’s a gradual realization.

It appears to some people that it’s gradual, but when you
awaken there never was any graduality. It appears like that
sometimes. When you awaken, you know that you’ve always
been awake. There never was a time when you were asleep.

Robert, how did you know enough not to talk about your
experience?

In the beginning, I used to ask my teacher about it, and the
teacher sent me to the principal. And the principal called my

the

mother. And my mother did take me to the doctor. And the
first doctor said I had hay fever. And then I discussed it with
some of my friends and I realized fast I’d better shut up. Even
now, my family thinks I’m crazy. I told you before, during
Christmas I spoke to my brother who I haven’t seen in about
sixteen years, and he said, “Are you still good for nothing?” I
said, “Yes, are you good for something?” But then I asked him
if he was happy and he shut up.

Is it accurate to say that the experiences exemplified by some
of these Zen masters is the same as you and Ramana speak of?

There are just different ways of saying it, but Buddhists
become enlightened also. Because of karmas and samskaras,
we are inclined towards a certain path. It may be Buddhism,
it may be mystical Christianity, it may be Advaita Vedanta.
We’re inclined toward a path from past lives.

Is there a period of assimilation after enlightenment where
the understanding deepens and changes one?

There is no deepening involved. You’re either awake or you
are not. There is an appearance, however, that you become
more peaceful, and all the things that used to disturb you seem
to dissipate.

So there is a process as realization occurs?

It is not really a process of realization; it’s a process to
become a better person. Awakening comes by itself and has
nothing to do with that. The appearance of improvement
happens also, but has nothing to do with realization.

-356

357 -

(^itence of the (<pteazt

So, you become a better person after Self-realization?

No, not after. After realization there is nobody left to be a
better person. The better person comes before. On the other
hand, there have been thieves and murderers who suddenly,
for some reason or another, have become Self-realized. It
depends on the person. Again, you are either awake or asleep.
There is no in between. Once you wake up, you realize you
have always been awake. There never was a time when you
were not. Before that awakening though, you have to go
through all kinds of experiences and practices sometimes. It
depends on the maturity of the person.

What if the person is immature, and they have a realization
of the Self, is the immaturity healed by the realization?

If a person awakens, there is no question of immaturity.
There is no one left to be mature or immature. You are just
awake. All that we are talking about goes on before awakening.

What about the sinners who have an awakening. What
happens to all the karma they generated?

It is completely burnt up. It never existed.

Can you walk over here and wake me up?

As far as I am concerned, you are already awake. You have
to be able to see it yourself.

Can someone awaken another by touching them?

It is very rare, but it is possible. It usually happens to a
person who has been on a spiritual path for many lives. Then
through a touch or a glance, they go all the way and break
through maya and become free. If you are asking whether I

Cfftump the fffum

can do that, there is no I left to do anything. If I were to do that,
there would be a me and a you, but there is no me and there is
no you. There is only Ultimate Oneness. There is one Self. There
is no one left to do anything to anyone else. The doing is part of
the dream. When awakening comes, there is only One. There is
no doer. Yogis do things like touching, but not Jnanis. Many
awakened people around Ramana Maharshi claimed that when
he looked at them or accidentally touched them, it caused an
awakening process. He denied everything. It depends on the
maturity of the individual. Anything is possible.

Why emphasize freedom so much?

We are not. “Freedom” is just a word to express that you
are not what appears to be. You are not bound to anything.
There is no bondage. There is no limitation. You are not
bound to the earth or to your body.

You nullify everything that is, and what is can be beautiful.

Anything that is beautiful in this world is temporary.

What's wrong with that?

What’s wrong is that you are living the mortal dream.
Whatever is temporary must come to an end. Then you will
experience the other side—unhappiness, sorrow. You
experience everything as a mortal being. But who wants to go
through life experiencing good and bad, ups and downs? Then
you die. Then you repeat everything all over again. You want
to get off the wheel and become everlasting joy, Pure Aware¬
ness. You want to go beyond what appears to be.

Remember, it is your mortal self who sees the good and bad
in the world. Surely you want to go beyond this into Eternity.

~ 358 ~

~ 359 ~

vwrvw w fj i/i/wi'v

If you don’t want to, stay where you are. This is why I say,
everyone is in their right place. There are no mistakes.

Learn to keep your life simple. Do not become bogged
down in this world of effects. The simpler your life is, the
better. Practice loving kindness, show peace to all. Do not be
swayed by TV or newspapers. Be yourself. Make your life
simple, peaceful. Do not listen to rumors. Do not become
involved in deep philosophy. Be gentle, humble, and strong.
The world may appear hard at times, but don’t let it fool you.
It has no power over you at all. The reason it appears hard at
times is because you allow it to be hard at times. It’s just how
you see it, how you perceive it. It’s all perception. Just look at
the world and laugh, and it will go away. Always realize you’re
Divine protected, Divine guided, to your highest good. You
have nothing to fight, nothing to fear. All is well.

360 -

(Silence of the (rpteart

Everything that you can ever imagine, that you want to be,
you already are.

You are the Imperishable Self that has always been,
that you will always be.

Beyond birth, beyond death, beyond experiences,
beyond doubts, beyond opinions.

Beyond whatever it is your body is going through,
whatever thoughts your mind thinks.

You are beyond that.

You are the Silence,

The Silence of the Heart.

<sAze the (salience, the Silence crfj the (^pteait

Always ask yourself, “Why am I here?” It is always good to
ask yourself this. I don’t mean why are you in the universe?
Why are you here in this room, in this class, at satsang? What
do you want? What are you looking for?

Remember, if you’re looking for anything, you’re here for
the wrong reason. For there is nothing that I can give you
really, that you haven’t already got. There is absolutely
nothing I can do for you. For I am not the doer.

Neither are you. You are already fulfilled. Everything I have is
yours. There is absolutely nothing lacking in you. You are Spirit.
You are not the body that appears to be a body. You are Spirit.
Something absolutely different than what you can ever imagine.

-361

< 2 ^itence the (^pteatl

Everything that you can ever imagine, that you want to be,
you already are. You are the imperishable Self that has always
been, that you always will be. Beyond birth, beyond death,
beyond experiences, beyond doubts, beyond opinions. Beyond
whatever it is your body is going through, whatever thoughts
your mind thinks. You are beyond that. You are the Silence,
the Silence of the Heart.

Know yourself. Whenever you think of yourself, think of
yourself as the Self. Not the I-thought, not the personal self,
but as the Supreme Energy, Sat-Chit-Ananda, Nirvana. You
are That.

If you really believed you are That, you would be in total
peace. There would be no thing in this world that can ever
disturb you. You would have no doubts. You would have
unalloyed happiness, total joy. It would make no difference
what your body is going through, or what thoughts come into
your mind. Or what people are doing, or are not doing, who is
right, who is wrong, who is enlightened, who is not. You would
never think of things like this.

When you think you’re human, you have duality to
contend with. Right and wrong, healthy or sick, rich or poor,
happy or sad, and the rest of it. But when you have tran¬
scended this, you see yourself in a completely different light.
You see yourself as the light, the light that shineth in the
darkness. The eternal glow that can never diminish. Omni¬
presence, All-Pervading.

You are that One. You have always been that One. You are
not what you think you are when you’re sad, when you’re
angry, when you’re upset. This is a lie. There is something
within you that knows the Truth. That is the Truth. You are
That.

Silence ofi the < 3 ?'Ceatt

Last Thursday I brought to your attention that I wish I
could share the things with you that I feel. But they were
ineffable. There are no words to describe these things. There
is no language that can, try to describe the realities, the Pure
Awareness. No words.

I received some phone calls from some of you. And they
said, “Robert, you can tell me how you feel.” (laughter) “You
can share it with me.” A few people ask me this. I try to
explain; if I was able to share it with words, I would. But that’s
not important.

What’s important to you is, how do you feel? Never mind
what’s going on within me. If you understand who you are,
then you understand what is happening within me. Do not
spend your time trying to determine what teachers are feeling,
or where they are coming from. Rather try to determine where
you are coming from, and who is it that thinks? Who is it that
has a problem that they can’t resolve? Who is it that believes
that they want to become enlightened? Find out.

Understand the truth about yourself. Go deeper within
yourself. Stop thinking about the world and your problems, or
whatever is going on in your life. That will resolve itself when
you begin to understand that you are Pure Intelligence.

Your so-called personal life will always resolve itself, will
always take care of itself. The power is within you. There is
nothing lacking. Never compare yourself to anybody else.
Look at yourself with your inner eye.

^ohe ^9hat ©J? j£ove ^ou

So, some people still ask me, “When you say you feel love,
what do you mean?” The love that I feel is totally unconditioned.

~ 362 ~

— 363 —

< 3 ^ilence ofi the (^pteatt

This is the reason I can love you no matter what you do. No
matter how you act. No matter where you come from. No
matter what’s going on. I can love you because I love myself.
And there is only one Self. So the Self that I love is you. It’s not
separate.

If I loved you as a separate entity, I’d have a problem. For
the separateness would show me different phases of your life.
But I can’t do that. I can only love. For the Self is love. It is not
a personal love. It is All-Pervading. So as I am an embodiment
of love, you are in that love also. There is only one love and
that love is Consciousness, and you are That.

People ask me, when I see peace, what do I mean? I don’t
have to see peace where it’s peaceful. I feel and see peace in
every situation. Whatever there appears to be going on, there
is peace. Just as in the center of a hurricane there is a peaceful
circle, total stillness at the center of a hurricane. The same is
true in the center of a tornado, in the cyclone. There is a center
of peace. We are all that center. The true peace is you.

Everything that appears is an image. An image that appears
on the Reality of life. There’s Reality, Consciousness, and all of
the vicissitudes of the world that go on all the time are super¬
imposed on this Consciousness, like a chalkboard.

Images are drawn on the chalkboard. It never affects the
chalkboard. They are erased. New images are drawn. The new
images never affect the chalkboard. No thing affects the chalk¬
board. The chalkboard remains the same, whether you decide to
draw a fire, a hurricane, a murder, famine, death, or whatever
you decide to draw. Wholeness, health, peace, birth, anything.
They are all imposters. The chalkboard never changes.

Always think of yourself as the chalkboard. And all the
things that go on in this world, try to feel them as images on

Silence (p) the (*pteatt

the chalkboard that change. Change continuously. This will
help you. It will help you to understand that you are not the
conditioning that goes on in your mind. You are not what your
eyes show you in this world. You are not the feelings you feel.
You are not the things that you hear. The things that you taste.
Those are all the images.

You are totally absolute freedom. Total harmony and joy.
This is your true nature. Abide in this truth and become free.

What is love?

Love, happiness, peace, joy, are all your real nature. It is a
feeling beyond a feeling. It is a total, ineffable something that
you are, and makes you know that you are one with every¬
thing. Everyone is your brother and sister, including the
flowers, the trees, the animals, the bedbugs, the cockroaches,
the mountains, the sky, the sick people, the healthy people, the
poor people, the rich people.

When you look at everyone with one eye and not differenti¬
ate, then you are in love. But when you pick out somebody
special and you think that one you are totally in love with,
because he or she has the right features, the right figure, the
right assets that you want, this is infatuation. This only lasts
for a day until you get what you want. But true love never
changes. It doesn’t go away because it never came from
anywhere. It’s just something that is. And you are That.

364 -

365

C ^lemembet

Well, everything is unfolding as it should.
Be true to yourself and right action
will take place in your life.

Thank you for coming.

I love you.

Remember:

To love yourself.

To worship yourself
To pray to yourself.

To bow down to yourself.

For God dwells within you as you.

Om, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti, Peace.

~ 367 ~

J^uiBe to (Sanscrit ^erms

Advaita-Vedanta: A subdivision of Vedanta. The non-duality
approach.

Ahimsa: [Nonharming]. Abstention from harmful actions,
thoughts, and words. An important moral discipline [yama] in
Yoga, Buddhism, and Jainism.

Ajnani: One who has not realized the Self.

Ananda: [Bliss]. In Vedanta, the mind-transcending blissfulness of
the Ultimate Reality or Self. This is not considered to be a quality
but the very essence of Reality.

Arunachala: The holy mountain in India where Shri Ramana spent
all his adult life.

Atman :[ Self]. The transcendental Self according to the non-dualist
[Vedanta] schools of thought, which is identical to Brahman.

Avadhuta: [Cast off]. A radical type of renouncer who abandons all
conventions; a crazy adept.

Avatara: [Descent]. An incarnation of the Divine, such as Krishna
and Rama.

Avidya: [Ignorance]. Spiritual nescience, which is the root of all
human suffering and the cause of one’s bondage to egoic states of
consciousness.

Bhagavad-Gita: [Lord’s Song]. The earliest and most popular
scripture of Yoga, containing the teachings of Lord Krishna to
Arjuna.

Bhakta: [Devotee]. A follower of Bhakti-Yoga.

~ 369 ~

<B^> jSjuide to Sanscrit ^etms

Bhakti: [Love, devotion]. The spiritual sentiment of loving partici¬
pation in the Divine.

Bodhisattva: [Enlightenment being]. In Mahayana Buddhism, the
spiritual practitioner who has vowed to commit himself or herself
to the liberation of all beings, postponing his or her own ultimate
realization.

Brahma: The Creator-God of the famous medieval Hindu triad of
gods. The other two are Vishnu [as Preserver] and Shiva [as
Destroyer]. Brahma must be carefully distinguished from the
Brahman, which is the eternal foundation of existence.

Brahmacarya: [Brahmic Conduct]. The practice of chastity in
thought, word, and deed, which is regarded as one ofthe fundamen¬
tal disciplines [yama] of Yoga.

Brahman: The impersonal absolute according to Vedanta; the
transcendental Ground of the world.

Buddha: [Awakened]. Title of Gautama, founder of Buddhism.

Chit: [Consciousness]. Pure Awareness, or the Transcendental
Consciousness beyond all thought; the eternal Witness. See also
atman, purusha.

Dharma: The cosmic law or order. Teaching-doctrine.

Dhyana: Meditation.

Diksha: Initiation by the guru.

Gopi: Female shepherd. In Vaishnavism, these terms refer to the
devotees of Lord Krishna.

Guna: [Quality]. One of three primary constituents of Nature
[prakrity]: Sattva [principle oflucidity], Rajas [principle of activity],
and Tamas [principle of inertia]. The interaction between these
three types creates the entire manifest and unmanifest cosmos,
including all psychomental phenomena.

Guru: [Heavy], Spiritual Teacher.

^uide to (Sanscrit etms

Hinayana: [Small Vehicle]. The minority school of Buddhism,
which has arhatship or arhantship as its leading ideal.

Ishvara: [Ruler]. Personal God.

Janaka: An Indian king: An account of his Self-realization can be
found in The Ashtavakra Gita.

Japa: [Recitation], Meditative recitation of mantras.

Jiva: [Living Being]. The psyche, or finite conscious human
personality, which experiences itself as different from others and
does not know the transcendental Self.

Jivan-Mukti: [Living Liberation]. The Self-realized adept who is
fully liberated while still embodied.

Jnana: Knowledge of the Self.

Jnani: One who has realized the Self.

Kali-Yuga: [Dark Age]. The modern age of spiritual decline, which
requires a new approach to Self-realization. It is thought to have
started in 3,012 B.C.

Karma: [Action]. Activity in general ofthe unenlightened individ¬
ual, which activates the law of cause and effect.

Krishna: An incarnation [avatara] of Vishnu.

Kundalini: [Serpent Power]. The power that lies dormant in the
lowest psychic center of the human body. The ascent of the kundalini
to the highest psychic center, at the crown of the head, brings about
a temporary state of ecstatic identification with the Self. [In
Nirvikalpa Samadhi].

Leela: The play of God.

Linga: [Mark]. The phallus as the symbol of creativity, which is
specifically associated with God Shiva.

Mahatma: Great soul, great man or saint.

Mahayana: [Great Vehicle]. The majority branch of Buddhism,
which has the bodhisattva as its great ideal.

~370~

~371

<3& Mu 'Se to Sanscrit ^emu

to ^Sanscrit ^etms

Mantra: Sound that empowers the mind for concentration and the
transcendence of the ordinary states of consciousness. Usually the
sacred words are given to a disciple by the guru.

Maya: Illusion

Moksha: [Release]. The highest of possible human pursuits:
Liberation. Synonymous with Self-realization.

Mouna: Silence.

Muktas: Liberated ones.

Nadi: [Conduit]. Channels in the body where the prana or energy
travels through.

Nirvana: [Extinction]. The transcendence of the ego, a condition
that is untouched by space and time.

Nirvikalpa-Samadhi: [Transconceptual Ecstasy]. Samadhi in
which no differences are perceived. It is characterised by an absence
of body-consciousness. Although one has a temporary awareness of
the Self in this state, one is not able to perceive sensory information
or function in the world. When body consciousness returns, the ego
reappears, so the ego has not been finally eliminated.

Om: The key mantra of Hinduism, symbolizing the Absolute.
Para-Brahman: The Supreme Brahman.

Prana: [Life]. The life-force sustaining the body which has five
principals forms.

Pranayama: [Breath Control]. The careful regulation of the breath.
This is the most important practice of Hatha-Yoga.

Puja: [Worship]. Ritual veneration of one’s teacher as an embodi¬
ment of the Divine.

Rama: The main hero of the Ramayana, deified as an incarnation
of God Vishnu.

Rishi: A type of Vedic seer, who sees the hymns of Veda.

Sadhana: [ Realizing]. The spiritual practice toward Self-realization.
Sadhaka: A spiritual seeker.

Sadhu: A noble person or a spiritual seeker. However, Shri Ramana
frequently used this term as a title for someone who has realized the
Self.

Sahaja-Saftiadhi: [Natural Ecstasy]. The effortless ecstasy. This is
the state of the Jnani who has finally and irrevocably eliminated his
ego. A Jnani in this state is able to function naturally in the world,
just as any ordinary person does. Knowing that he is the Self, the
Jnani sees no difference between himself and others or the world.
For a Jnani, everything is a manifestation of the indivisible Self.

Samsara: [Confluence]. The finite world of change and illusion.
Samskara: [Activator]. Innate tendencies.

Sat-Chit-Ananda: Being-Consciousness-Bliss.

Satsang: [Relationship to the True]. The spiritual practice ofbeing
in the presence of someone who has realised the Self. Association
with ‘being’.

Savikalpa-Samadhi: [Ecstasy with form-ideation]. In this state
Self-Awareness is mantained by constant effort. The continuity of
the Samadhi is wholly dependent on the effort put it to mantain it.
When Self attention wavers, Self-Awareness is obscured by thoughts
and imagery.

Shakti: [Power]. The feminine power aspect of the Divine, which is
fundamental to the metaphysics and spirituality of Tantrism.

Shanti: [Peace]. Ultimate peace. Quality which coincides with Self-
realization.

Siddha: [Accomplished, perfect]. A Self-realized adept. One who
has reached perfection.

Siddhi: [Accomplishment]. Paranormal power, that comes as a
result of spiritual practice.

~372~

~373~

<B& to (^samczit r ~(7jezm&

Swarupa: Real form or Real Nature.

Tamil: A South Indian language: Shri Ramana’s mother tongue.

Tapas: [Glow, heat]. Ascetism, religious austerity, penance, heat.

Tiruvannamalai: A town about a mile from Shri Ramana’s
Ashram.

Turiya: The Fourth State of Consciousness.

Vajrayana: [Adamantine Vehicle]. The tantric branch of Bud¬
dhism, especially of Tibet, which evolved out of the Mahayana.

Vasana: [Trait]. The concatenation of subliminal activators
[samskaras], deposited in the depth of consciousness. Mental
tendencies.

Vedanta: [Veda’s End]. The dominant Hindu tradition, which
teaches that Reality is singular and One.

Vedas: Four collections of scriptures dating from 2,000 B.C. to 500
B.C. which are the ultimate source of authority for most Hindus.

Vichara: Self-Enquiry.

Vishnu: One of the three principal deities of Hinduism. Vishnu
periodically reincarnates in a human body.

Yoga: [Union]. Spiritual practice in general.

Yoga-Vasishtha: A massive advaitic text attributed to Valmiki in
which the Sage Vasishtha answers questions put by Rama, an
incarnation of Vishnu. Composed sometime in the tenth century
A.D.

Yuga: [Age]. According to Hindu mythology, there are four yugas,
each of several thousand years’ duration. The present age is kali-
yuga.

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